As the Western world grows more intolerant and various nations continue to favor their preferred religions over others, I've become more critical of the Western claim of superior religious freedom. But inevitably, I get into it with liberal online who, having bad sources or none at all, claim that China is worse when it comes to religious freedom.
I don't think it's useful to defend everything a state does. They often make mistakes and use their violence in the wrong way. But I do think China in particular doesn't have the same issues with religion as the Western countries do. Namely, they don't allow one religion to dominate over others or set their laws on the basis of religious beliefs. To me, that's an incredible step forward (I like in the USA, where women's reproductive rights were just taken away in part on the grounds that the Bible (supposedly) says so).
But I'd like to be a little more educated. Finding any good resources on China these days is like trying to find anything on the internet before Google existed: you gotta just feel in the dark and hope you get lucky.
I cannot reason with the libs. They do not reason well. For example, pointing out the sheer lack of religious freedom that many face in Western countries does not phase them. They don't care (usually they're privileged to not).
So can somebody point me in the right direction? Even a book or paper on the topic would be great.
It also depends on what "two state solution" actually means. Traditionally, Israel has made such solutions impossible. The "you go your way, we'll go ours" has been off the table because Israel doesn't want that, they want the entire land and the expulsion of Palestine entirely.
A two-state solution, where there's a kind of federation between them might actually work. The federation would have to abide by international committees and violations by either state would be subject to some kind of punishment (be it trade deals or even military action in severe cases).
The first problem, though, is the weapons supply and military training from the West. If that were cut off, it would take maybe a year of bloody gorilla fighting, but the playing field would be relatively equal at that point and then it'd be anybody's guess who'd win out. Getting the USA to slowly wean away support would mean negotiating partially on their terms.
In other words, Xi could just be giving the USA a peaceful "out" here, if they take it. The USA can save face and support a ramp down of the situation instead of escalation. I don't see that happening near-term, but lots can change in the next few years and this play by China might just be the thing that allows a better situation to happen here.