You act as if the US doesn't do this. But it has the highest incarceration rates in the world, often for petty crimes like smoking weed. And it also puts prisoners to work.
I agree that the US prison industrial complex should be reformed. However it is in no way equivalent to locking people up for political reasons. Political reeducation camps and forced harvesting of organs from prisoners cannot be compared to work release programs or paid prison labor.
Why are so many comments seeking to establish equivalence?
How are they comparable? The black incarceration rate in the US is around 2.3%[1], meanwhile the incarceration rate for Uyghurs is estimated to be around 10%-15%[2][3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_St...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China
Funny you mention whataboutism, because there's a distinct lack of it here. No one here is justifying America's incarceration rates by saying "the other side" does the same.