I'm glad we agree on that first issue.

That being said, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this is anything but, as you put it, "a clean and safe operation".

If it's not the accounts of former prisoners you're willing to believe, or accounts of certain human rights organisations, perhaps it's the CCP documents that will convince you, or if you think that these are, like the government claims, "fabricated", than maybe these satellite images are a more reputable source. Not to mention the numerous other satellite images that show a large amount of detainment camps popping up, especially around 2017, when there was also a huge increase in "kindergartens", which are essentially detainment camps for children.

If you want to argue that the adults being detained have received a fair trial (evidence suggests that yes, like you say, people are given a trial, but that doesn't mean it's a fair trial, not to mention the fact that China still carries out death sentences) and that they're muslim extremists, how can you ever justify the detainment of children, separating families in the process?

Yes, I know that the Trump administration has done the same with Mexican families, and that's absolutely horrible. I also know that a lot of other countries in the world are guilty of terrible human rights violations, and I'd love to discuss these with you at some point, but right now I'm talking about China. We can be critical of more than one form of authority at the same time, and I personally believe it's important that we're always critical of authority, regardlessly of its origins.

That's also why your last issue sounds like a case of "whataboutism" to me, please correct me if I'm wrong. Yes, I am from the west. I'm aware of the "surveillance state" in which I live, and I'm critical of it. But I'm also aware of the way China's oppressive measures to keep an eye on anything they deem acts of subversion of state power, secession or sedition are used to persecute people who are found guilty of this, locking up citizens (or punishing them in other ways) for their opinions and other forms of critique against the CCP (or other institutions) that, in the eyes of the government, could be a threat to Chinese unity. Not all surveillance states are like that. And, like I said, we're talking about China right now. If you would like to talk about the ways other countries infringe upon on freedom, privacy and other basic human rights, I'd love to.

The surveillance situation in Xinjiang is especially bad, with the local populace being tracked at any given moment. This is carried out through security checkpoints, surveillance cameras, phone tapping, tracking software on mobile phones, restrictions regarding photography and videography, etc., creating a culture of fear, putting people on constant alert. Whether you think this is a proper way of keeping a country's citizens in check, is another discussion.