I’ve been seeing lots of articles and posts claiming that China is interning the Uyghur Muslim population in camps, killing, torturing, and even forcibly sterilizing people. This post is the main one I’ve seen going around. I wanted to put together articles on how these claims are false, and why it’s important to be critical of what US funded media is telling us.
1. The “China Scholar” who made the claims that China is locking up ‘millions of people’ is an ant-semitic white man
Almost every article on XinJiang references Adrian Zenz, a ‘China scholar.’ Adrian Zenz is the one who estimated that the camps contain “Up to 1.5 million people.” He also called it cultural genocide, and alleged that they were labor camps.
He also alleged that XinJiang is forcibly sterilizing women. However, these reports were based exclusively on the fact that the government had spent money providing free birth control to women in XinJiang. While China has denied these claims, other countries have also come out in support of China on XinJiang.
Adrian Zenz is just one person, and he’s also incredibly anti-semitic and racist. He says that he is “led by God” to defeat China and bring Christianity. This man is a self declared China expert who has only been to XinJiang once. He is a right-wing propagandist backed by the United States.
2. When these allegations first emerged, the United Nations and the United States were invited by China to visit XinJiang. Both refused. However, over 37 countries came out in support of China.
If the UN and the United States were truly concerned about the state of life in XinJiang, wouldn’t they have visited? This invitation remains open.
On the other hand, many other countries have sent diplomats to XinJiang, and have concluded that the camps were more like centers designed to teach people vocational skills and how to integrate into society after radicalization. One diplomat said, “The vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang are not
‘concentration camps’ as described by some Western media, but schools to
help those influenced by extreme thoughts to eliminate the harmful
thoughts and learn vocational skills” These countries include Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, the Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, and Nigeria.
In addition, when the United States first alleged human rights violations, a total of 50 countries came out in support of China. If you look at the list of countries that are accusing China, you’ll see it’s mostly white countries that are settler colonies, and former or current colonizers. If you look at the second list of the many more countries that support China and refute these claims, you see many formerly colonized countries, as well as Muslim led countries. These are allegations, and many countries do not support them. Notice that Palestine is in support of China, as well as Cuba, both countries that have been targets of US imperialism. Regardless of how you feel about these countries individually, there’s a clear split between white, colonizing countries and POC, formerly colonized countries.
“We appreciate China’s commitment to
openness and transparency. China has invited a number of diplomats,
international organizations officials and journalist to Xinjiang to
witness the progress of the human rights cause and the outcomes of
counter-terrorism and de-radicalization there… We
call on relevant countries to refrain from employing unfounded charges
against China based on unconfirmed information before they visit
Xinjiang.”
However, neither the UN nor the United States have actually visited XinJiang since they made these allegations. Instead, they have continued to make broad allegations without actually visiting XinJiang or researching these claims. Meanwhile, the United States has been sterilizing women in ICE camps, encouraging rampant islamaphobia, and continues to blame China for COVID.
3. The United States has a vested interest in portraying China as evil. Only a few leftist organizations have spoken up.
Many of us are familiar now with blaming China for things. China is blamed for COVID time and time again, even being called the “China Virus” by the president of the USA. However, despite such a right wing push for Americans to hate China, the left has bought nearly everything they’ve said.
The Black Agenda Report, a Black American led news site, has published many articles on China and the US’s lies about it.
I’m making no claims on the merit of China as a country. It is a huge, complicated place. Many groups within it have done good and bad things. Merit isn’t the question. Rather, my point is that the United States is in a cold war and is accusing China (and all its people) of things it hasn’t done. The US has been in this situation before. It has used vague claims of “human rights abuses” to justify invading and killing innocent people in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Hawaii, Yemen, and many other regions.
Everything the United States says about China is pure projection.
