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Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Inside China's High-Tech Penal Colony with Darren Byler

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Msnbc, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Government, Politics, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, Withpod, Versant, Ms Now, News, Society & Culture, Versant Media

4.69.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Since 2017, a high-tech form of colonization has been rapidly growing in Xinjiang, China. As many as 1.5 million Muslim Uyghurs have vanished into high-security camps and factories. The Chinese regime describes these sites as “vocational education and training centers” that are utilized to counter terrorism. But what actually goes on inside of these internment camps? That’s the subject of Darren Byler’s new book, “In The Camps: China’s High-Tech Penal Colony.” In it, Byler draws on a decade of research on the region. He joins to discuss his findings and the role of various forms of technology including facial recognition, smartphones and apps like WeChat, in government surveillance. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0

A lot of what's happening though is not actually education.

0:02.5

It's about in terms of knowledge.

0:04.8

It's about discipline, about forcing these people

0:08.5

to recognize the power of the state and to submit to it.

0:11.2

There's a lot of physical violence that's happening as well.

0:13.6

If you violate the rules, getting up from your stool,

0:16.8

taking too long in the bathroom, you will be beaten,

0:19.5

often with non-lethal weapons.

0:23.1

Hello, and welcome to Wise's Happening with me,

0:24.9

your host, Chris Hayes.

0:25.8

Let's start today with a little Foucault.

0:31.8

Why not?

0:32.6

A French theorist, philosopher, incredibly influential.

0:35.5

Interesting has had kind of a renaissance

0:37.1

among the American right recently,

0:39.3

which actually makes some sense,

0:40.7

because though I think coded as a leftist in his life,

0:45.0

he was extremely subversive thinker in many ways.

0:47.8

There's lots of ways in which his thinking is,

0:50.4

I think, quite reactionary, but never mind that for the moment.

0:53.5

He's got a very famous book about criminology,

0:56.6

about the theory of crime, but more deeply

...

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