“Xinjiang in My Eyes”: Debunking the Lies and Anti-China Propaganda Focusing on China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
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This article is based on an International Forum hosted by the
Chongyang Institute and the China Public Diplomacy Association of the
Renmin University, Beijing. The actual forum took place in Guli’s House,
Kashgar, Xinjiang, on 20 May 2021.
The conference was introduced by four keynote speakers, followed by
18 participants, who all expressed their views on the western bashing of
China, falsely accusing China, in this particular case, of human rights
abuses against the Muslim Uyghur population of the Xinjiang Autonomous
Region in the far-west of China. The following summarizes my
Zoom-presentation as one of the 18 guest speakers.
Other than the constant barrage of lies against China, much of the
lie-propaganda focusing on Xinjiang has to do with the pivotal role this
Autonomous Province plays for the Belt and Road Initiative – BRI.
The so-called Uyghur conflict was largely created by the west, led by
the United States. It is symptomatic for western smearing their
perceived and falsely accused enemies around the world, thereby hoping
to bring about worldwide hatred against their perceived enemies, in this
case China. The Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang fits perfectly
into this agenda of the United States, as Xinjiang is a key hub for
connecting China – i.e., the Belt and Road – with the west, through
Pakistan, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and to some lesser
extent through Mongolia.
Xinjiang, in northwestern China, is a vast mostly highland region of
deserts and mountains. It’s home to many ethnic minority groups,
including the Turkic Uyghur people.
Xinjiang Province was a vital passage for the Ancient Silk Road – of
some 2100 years back, a trade route linking China with the Middle East
and Southern Europe, through Central Asia.
Signs of this Ancient Silk Road passage are still visible by the
traditional open-air bazaars of the once-upon-a time oasis cities of Kashgar and Hotan.
President Xi Jinping’s new Silk Road, alias the Belt
and Road Initiative, is patterned according to the same trading
principles of the Ancient Silk Road, but with 21st Century technology and cultural knowledge.
For westerners to better understand the crucial importance of
Xinjiang province for the Belt and Road connection of China with the
west, here are some facts. Xinjiang province covers an area of
approximately 1.7 million square kilometers (km2), about equivalent to
the combined landmass of France, Turkey and Poland. The province has
about 25 million inhabitants – of which an estimated 12 million – almost
half – are Uyghur Muslims.
The Uyghurs, an ethnic group of western and central Asia, are
recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in
Northwest China. But they also reside in neighboring countries, like
Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan and even in Australia and Canada.
Xinjiang Province is surrounded by the rugged Karakoram, Kunlun and
Tian Shan Mountain ranges, making up much of Xinjiang’s borders.
Kashgar, (pop. about 720,000 [2019]), the host city
of this International Forum, is an ancient oasis city in the desertic
Tarim Basin region of Western Xinjiang. It is one of the western most
cities of China, close to the borders with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, India
and a tiny border with Afghanistan. Kashgar has served as a
strategically important trading post over 2000 years ago for the Ancient
Silk Road between China, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Kashgar has the distinguished reputation of being one of the oldest,
continuously inhabited cities in the world.
It is well known, the west, led by the US, including her European
NATO allies, wants to destabilize China by whatever means they can find.
At present China is surrounded by about 400 US military bases; of which
the world’s largest which is located in Guam.
The Belt and Road project has been and remains a thorn in the eyes of
the US / West since its initiation in 2013. However, until about 2019,
the BRI had practically been non-existent, literally “banned” from
reporting by western media. When countries like Italy and Greece
officially recognized and connected to the BRI – the western mainstream
media woke up, so to speak, and began criticizing and accusing China and
all the countries that were connecting to BRI – of interfering in
western politics.
This is a total lie. China never forces a country to participate in
the Belt and Road, or any other Chinese initiative, for that matter. To
the contrary, China offers the connection to the Belt and Road,
as President Xi did in 2013, when he presented to Germany the
opportunity to become at that time the western most point of the BRI.
Madame Merkel – in the orbit of Washington – refused; and President Xi went home and continued the Chinese Project of the Century, working with and connecting other countries.
Why is the Belt and Road a thorn in the eye of the west?
Because the Belt and Road, counting already more than 150 member
countries and international organization, is the largest global economic
development scheme in current history, connecting countries, the world,
PEACEFULLY through infrastructure, industry, science, trade, education
and cultural exchange – aiming at a multi-polar world. This is precisely
the contrary of the western objectives – a globalized world under US /
NATO leadership.
Therefore, the New Silk Road is seen as a competitor, or rather an
enemy, for western imperial forces. Attacking China in Xinjiang is a
clear effort to destabilize a crucially important area of the Belt and Road.
Of course, we know, there are other areas of atrocious aggressions on
the PRC by the west: Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong – to name just a few.
These are the abject lie-accusations:
China is accused of “ethnic cleansing” – against the minority Muslim
Uyghurs, wanting a “clean” Han Dynasty-type Xinjiang Province. Despite
western interference, Xinjiang Province has been for the past three to
four years among the most peaceful areas of China. Some 55 ethnic groups
are living peacefully on her territory. Why would Beijing discriminate
against the Uyghurs?
The west claims that Beijing holds over a million Uyghurs in
concentration camps, using them for slave-labor, and committing untold
human rights abuses.
That’s an outright lie.
Here is what really happens:
Western secret services infiltrate
Xinjiang Province, mainly through the small border with Afghanistan
(which is occupied for 20 years by US / NATO forces), to train and
radicalize Muslim Uyghurs against China and to recruit them to fight in
US’s proxy wars in the Middle East. Especially, to fight a Jihad war in
Syria, but also in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, the west –
US / NATO – wants to destabilize and control.
When the Uyghur militants return home to China and the Xinjiang
Province, they were trained and are supposed to terrorize and
destabilize China, especially in the Xinjiang Province, home to this
pivotal Belt and Road area.
However, instead of putting them in concentration torture camps – as
the US does with their war prisoners, sending them to the world’s most
infamous torture prison, Guantanamo, a US-held enclave in Cuba.
Chinese authorities re-educate the returning, radicalized Uyghurs, so
as to re-integrate them again into Chinese society. They have been
very successful at that. Hence, the peaceful, colorful and often festive
ambiance throughout Xinjiang and especially the city of Kashgar.
Xinjiang is increasingly becoming a tourist destination, for Chinese, as
well as foreign visitors.
This is what really happens. No Chinese concentration camps. No forced labor.
But the truth doesn’t fit the western narrative of “evil China”, discriminating against and torturing a Muslim minority.
This is the true face of the coin that the world ought to know, but
is constantly denied by biased and outright “bought” western media.
*
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Peter Koenig is a
geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and
the World Health Organization (WHO), where he has worked for over 30
years on water and environment around the world. He lectures at
universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly
for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author
of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus
Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)
He is a Research Associate of the
Centre for Research on Globalization, and a non-resident Fellow of the
Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
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