Xinjiang and the Fake News
Every day, we read reports about atrocities in Xinjiang. Concentration camps came first. These turned out to be schools for education and retraining. Reports of forced labour were actually job opportunities for rural people who had no local jobs. Taking kids from their parents came next, but this was found to be nothing more than kids from rural areas going to boarding schools in the urban areas, very common in China. Then came stories of babies being taken and locked in orphanages, closer inspection of this report found that kids were taken to kindergarten, so their parents were free to work during the day, taking advantage of job new opportunities.
Language destruction was reported shortly afterward, and this transpired to be nothing more than the enforcement of a regulation which, China-wide, requires students to study Mandarin in school so that more job and social opportunities would be available later. After this we saw articles detailing the destruction of religion. Satellite images were shown to the world of a Mosque being “destroyed”, which in fact, when verified, was found to be a gate to a mosque being removed so the mosque itself could be expanded.
Then we started to see stories about genocide! Including forced abortions and sterilisations which, when examined turned out to be untrue, a number, given in Western media for the amount of female sterilisations was miscalculated and reported as 87% when, in fact, it was 8.7%, not a high number of people choosing not to have more children. Further calculations were made and allegations that the Uyghurs weren’t allowed to have children were quickly dismissed when it was established that their population, during a period of national family planning, has actually increased. Something other ethnicities in China have also done, but only minorities, not the Han majority.
The USA recently impounded a shipment of hair from Xinjiang, saying the hair was taken from “prisoners in Xinjiang”. It then transpired that the hair was fake, so the story needed to change. The products suddenly became made by “slave labour”. However, once again, on investigation, it turned out the hair products were made in a factory supported, funded and visited by representatives of the World Bank.
This raises two questions: Why does mainstream media keep doing this? The obvious reason is that it suits the US government to keep China destabilised and defensive because they’re afraid of China’s rise. Xinjiang is a major component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and destabilising it will inhibit China’s growth. The second question is a little more complicated and asks: Where is the media getting the stories from?
Over a long period of time, there have been terrorist and separatist incident in Xinjiang, these are an undeniable matter of record. China’s approach is exactly as Europe is now taking. Arresting and punishing terrorists. But it’s much more complicated than this. Why do people become terrorists?
The perfect breeding grounds for extremism are poverty and under-education. Many people haven’t committed crimes but, because of poverty and their lack of educational opportunities, they may have ideas and thoughts that could lead to people being hurt. These are the people who could become extremists. China is not anti-Islam, anti-Muslim, or even Anti-Uyghur, but, like everywhere else worldwide, China is anti-extremism. It’s these issues that China is attempting to combat through education for children, re-training for adults and poverty alleviation for all.
To do this, schools were constructed, because the region suffered terrorism, schools need to be secure. Factories have been constructed and they, like the schools need security as well as dormitories because workers may travel many hours. The purchase of security equipment and many beds have been interpreted as being for “concentration camps” when in fact they are a normal part of China’s culture and a massive injection into the local economy. How could this misinterpretation possibly happen?
The US found a man called Adrian Zenz. Zenz was awarded a PhD by Columbia International University, (not Columbia, the famous one) this is a University of religious instruction offering online PhDs. On its website the university declares it accepts: “students of any race, colour, national and ethnic origin” what it doesn’t say, until you dig deeper is that is only accepts Evangelical Christians. In other words, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, even normal Christians, need not apply. Zenz, through his own book, entitled “Worthy to Escape” has proven himself to be an evangelical and controversial figure even to other Christians. He talks openly about: inequality of women; disapproval of homosexuals and asserts that, unless you share his beliefs, you aren’t suitable to enter heaven. More worryingly, he believes that his God has spoken to him and told him to “destroy the Communist Party”.
Zenz, a religious extremist, using computing experience searches for Chinese documents online. He’s found building, security supplies and many other construction items, including beds were sent to Xinjiang. He’s found information about normal medical treatment but misunderstood much of the information. He speaks no Chinese but claims to have interviewed 8 Uyghurs, who gave him information he extrapolated with flawed maths, to suggest 800,000 Uyghurs were being detained.
He understands nothing about the culture of Chinese kids living in schools or migratory workers travelling to live in factory dormitories. His interpretation, based on one trip to China in 2007 as a tourist, his extreme religious beliefs, dislike of Muslims, hatred of communists, and lack of Chinese cultural awareness, have caused him to interpret and report to the US Government, that he believes prisons and forced labour are part of everyday life for the Uyghur population.
None of the reports we read in western news come from reporters who visit Xinjiang or interview Uyghurs there, all of them quote “credible sources” which draw their information from Zenz’s research and interpretation. Research which has been flawed from the beginning but repeated so often it’s now believed to be mainstream news — As Donald Trump might say: Fake News!
