Even Assad pretends to be fighting terrorists when he oppresses his people. The Chinese aren't even doing that. They're targeting anyone who grew up in a religious household and they aren't even claiming to do it to combat religious extremism. Even if they did claim to be fighting extremism it would still not be appropriate to target such a broad group of people.

I guess this is such a small minority they feel they can oppress them without consequence. I personally fail to see how these people are in any way a threat to the regime and if anything it seems like the regime's actions will make them a bigger threat in the long term.