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Nothing defeats bigotry like knowledge. Scott Horton proves it here.

If you’ve been following the story coming from Xinjiang, you know that there have been riots and scores of deaths reported by the Chinese national news agency. Most of the story has been told at arm’s length, and without knowledge of China’s history with its minorities, the riots may seem like just another global flareup.

The dirty secret, of course, is that China’s ethnic minorities are treated as third-class citizens, and despite their labeling as “Muslim terrorists” by the Chinese government, they are far from the Taliban or al-Qaeda. Horton:

Yesterday, another Central Asianist with whom I was trading Xinjiang experiences recounted a conversation he had with Uighurs in Kashgar a few years ago. “What really upset them,” he said, “was the fact that the Chinese were emptying their prisons of convicted felons, offered their freedom if they would resettle in Xinjiang. And these convicted felons were put in positions of authority over the natives.” The message could not be clearer: Central Asians are third-class citizens, not to be trusted. And this is the sort of conduct which has led to uprisings, just like the one now occurring in Xinjiang, in Tibet, and other regions.

China’s government has systematically hurt its ethnic minorities in an attempt to expand the Han Chinese dominant culture. Even at the Olympics, during which China eagerly paraded out the costumes of its various ethnic minorities, the parts were played by Han children.

Horton wrote his article in response to Andy McCarthy at the National Review, who has labeled the Uighurs as terrorists. The sooner we begin seeing the bogeyman everywhere, the more rare our friends become.