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That doesn’t seem uniquely terrible to me, as an American. That’s just kind of what empires do, and I doubt I’d have to go very far to find a dozen examples of the US doing something quite similar.

Our discussion is between China lending and the IMF lending, not the USA.

And it’s not a few years of austerity, the austerity causes long-term disturbances in the well being of the population, and is sometimes never undone.

Long term disturbances like losing your port nation's seaport to China for 99 years? Also with the distance possibility it will be a Chinese military base on your own soil without your consent?

Also you're mixing to concepts as equal when they aren't. IMF austerity is an imposed condition for getting a loan. A country considering an IMF loan can choose to not take IMF money and therefore not impose austerity. China is doing worse here where they're allowing bad loans with no conditions, but write into the agreements that China gets national assets when the country defaults. As in, the country doesn't have a choice to forgo the Chinese money and keep their assets that ship (pun intended) has already sailed.

The IMF are some of the biggest bastards on the planet, you’d almost be better off dealing with the devil.

I'm not defending the IMF's actions. They're no angels. However it seems you're answering you'd prefer to deal with China and lose your countries land and national assets.

So, that would be working towards the eradication of a people. There’s various ways to get there, forced sterilization (which we did with native Americans), outright slaughter or famine (which we did with native Americans), forced removal campaigns (spoiler alert), and, of course, the eradication of cultural identity (like the boarding schools for native Americans).

I'm glad to see we agree on the definition of genocide to include intentional destruction of the culture.

AFAICT, the evidence for what’s happening in Xinjiang is mostly around re-education camps, which could arguably qualify on the fourth criterion, but we don’t really have any reliable details on it because authoritarian governments generally don’t share their secret squirrel bullshit publicly.

I'm not sure you've looked very hard at the "destruction of culture" aspects China is imposing. Here's an article from CNN from 6 years ago:

"Chinese Uyghurs forced to welcome Communist Party into their homes: Government statements and state media reports show that families are required to provide detailed information during the visits on their personal lives and political views. They are also subject to “political education” from the live-in officials– whose stays are mandated to be at least one week per month in some locations."

"In numerous photos posted online, the authorities paint a picture of ethnic unity, showing smiling Han officials and minority families jointly preparing meals, doing household chores, playing sports and even sharing the same bed – images that Human Rights Watch’s Wang says put the “forced intimacy” element of the program on full display. "

"A local government statement online also indicated that officials must inspect the homes they are staying for any religious elements or logos – and instructed the officials to confiscate any such items found in the house."

"“The real intention of the Chinese government is to eliminate the Uyghurs as a distinct ethnic group,” Rebiya Kadeer, a longtime exiled Uyghur leader who recently stepped down as president of the advocacy group World Uyghur Congress, told CNN in an interview in Washington last year."

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