Re Uyghurs And The West
In yesterday’s post I briefly referenced what I stated was Western propaganda regarding the Uyghurs in China’s far western region of Xinjiang. This was actually in the context of talking about the years of economic warfare that the US Deep State has waged around the world.
As in most things Chinese, there is a long history that goes with the current Western claims of “genocide” against the Uyghurs. The same is true of the place of Tibet and Tibetans in the current China—there’s a long history (which we actually have delved into a bit). I suggested—or at least had in mind—that the claims of genocide were another example of Deep State propaganda intended to gaslight the Western public into viewing China and the Chinese as global badguys in league with Russia and Putin and who must be put in their place—subservient to the “benevolent” Globalist West. I edited out the original phrase at the urging of a commenter because, frankly, I haven’t read much about the situation in Xinjiang and wrote yesterday based on recollections that I was unable to trace quickly. It wasn’t essential to the post.
However, several commenters responded with interesting observations. Since they raised considerations that are very much at the core of Meaning in History, I’m going to reproduce those comments for readers who may have missed them.
I should add up front that I’m not competent to go into the whole history of non-Confucian religions in China—which I do refer to below. The history of such religions in China isn’t simple, and especially because most of these alternative religions (in China) have either taken on Chinese influences or have been the vehicle for spreading dissent from the established order—a cardinal sin for a civilizational based country like China.
For example, while many in the West may view Uyghurs as simply “Muslims”, the reality isn’t that simple. There are different types of Muslims in China, and the history has not always been peaceful. The Wiki article re the Hui specifically mentions the rise of Salafism, which is the major concern of the Chinese government currently. Not coincidentally, the Chinese are well aware that the Anglo-Zionist empire has a long history of using jihadi forms of Islam as a weapon against its chosen targets, without regard for the consequences.
Similar considerations apply also to other non-Confucian religions such as Taoism and Buddhism. Both have long been associated in China with political dissent as well as being considered culturally subversive. Both have long been associated with secret societies. Again, the history of Christianity in China is associated with the Taiping Rebellion—a revolutionary civil war that lasted for 14 years and, in Chinese consciousness (and reality) is associated with the Opium Wars and the years of humiliation at the hands of Western colonialist powers.
Which is to say, that the Globalist West has been stepping on Chinese toes in many ways, and that dealing with Chinese social concerns from the standpoint of Western history is a foolish exercise. Unfortunately, China—its culture and history—are topics that are far too complex and difficult to grapple with for most of us in the West. We are thus easy prey for gaslighting.
With that preface out of the way, I hope readers will find the exchanges below interesting:
Mark, you make a tantalising comment about "the campaign of lies about China’s Uyghur". This is the first time I've considered this matter as a hoax. I'm both an avid British reader of yours and a good acquaintance of a certain member of our House of Lords (a man of integrity who acts on conviction), the latter being a huge campaigner on pro-life and religious liberty issues, including the Uyghurs. I've also hosted a number of displaced Uyghurs once (before I had much interest in geopolitics or was terribly concerned about what exactly their plight was). It is thus hard (but not impossible) for me to swallow this. Are there any good sources/readings you can point to where I can dig a bit more into this without losing my sanity?
Thank you!
PS. Stefan, if possible, I think it would be ideal if you or the member of the House of Lords (or both?) could visit Xinjiang and meet a lot of Uyghurs, including several imams, and get their opinions directly (through a translator). I realize that, because of the relentless propaganda coming from the mainstream media, it may be difficult to believe that almost the exact opposite situation in Xinjiang is true, especially because the Chinese government did respond to the demos in Hong Kong in a clumsy and undemocratic way, so it might be valuable to examine the situation with your own eyes and ears. We seem to live in a world of intense and constant information warfare.
Yes, the Uyghur exploitation/oppression/genocide lie-complex is nothing but propaganda. You can find several good, objective articles analyzing this US-sponsored hoax if you go through articles on this subject published on the Gray Zone site. Many are 5-6 years old. You can also find some good videos made by US and Canadian indie journalists in China who took trips to Xinjiang and interviewed (in Chinese -- most Uyghurs are bilingual) many Uyghurs, including Uyghur imams and Uyghur cotton farm owners. If you'll give me some time, I could dig up and post some links for you.
The most basic fact is that US and Uyghur propagandists are deliberately mixing together two different kinds of Uyghurs. Traditionally, most Uyghurs in Xinjiang were and are Sufis, a peaceful, almost mystical sect of Islam. The small, limited group of Uyghurs who are under the surveillance of the Chinese police are a small minority of Wahhabist Muslims who are militant in their beliefs and actions and who want to overthrow Xinjiang as a province of China and establish a Sharia-law-based Islamic Republic in its place. On one video I heard one of these fundamentalist Wahhabist Uyghur militants tell a Canadian journalist that when Xinjiang is "liberated" all Han Chinese, ethnic Mongolians, and other "foreigners" will be expelled, and even traditional Uyghurs will be expelled if they refuse to give up their heretical traditional Islamic ways and become Wahhabists. Where did this Wahhabism come from? Well, it came from Saudi Arabia originally and was spread into central Asia, especially Afghanistan, by the Saudis and by the US, which originally helped create Wahhabist-influenced Al Qaeda in order to defeat the USSR in Afghanistan. Some of the Uyghurs in western Xinjiang had trading and other links to central Asia, and some of them were attracted to Wahhabism and to the political success of the Taliban, whom they hope to emulate by turning Xinjiang into a Sharia-law Republic. The US hopes to use this militant Wahhabist minority for its own purposes: to block China's Belt and Road program, which goes through Xinjiang; to injure the Chinese economy (Xinjiang is one of the world's great cotton-producing areas); and, eventually to overthrow the present government of China.
The biggest problem is that young Wahhabist Uyghurs several times in the 2000s carried out terrorist attacks in various cities in Xinjiang, declaring that they would liberate Xinjiang by force. In response, the Chinese police (including mainstream Xinjiang Uyghurs) began investigating and arresting anyone connected with the violent attacks or planning future attacks. The Chinese also set up a number of special short-time schools which were voluntary for some and involuntary for others. Students consist of Uighurs who have either asked to attend because they feel confused and Uyghurs who have been turned in by their friends neighbors, or parents, since the friends, neighbors or parents were disturbed by the Wahhabist talking points that their friend or child suddenly began using. As I understand it, the curriculum of such a school includes Civics, Chinese law, Uyghur and Han Chinese culture and language, and various job-training skill courses to help the students find good jobs after they graduate in 4-6 months. Voluntary students are said to go home on weekends. It should be stressed that the students who go to these schools are only a tiny fraction of the whole Uyghur population of Xinjiang.
Most Uyghurs seem, from all the documentaries I've seen, well integrated into Xinjiang society. They, like other minorities in China, receive a number of perks, such the right to have more children than Han Chinese (the Uyghur population has been growing steadily, despite propaganda to the contrary) and the right to have 50 points automatically added to their university entrance exam scores. Chinese entrance exams are very difficult, and 50 extra points will get some Uyghur students into elite universities, and no doubt there will be some Uyghur Chinese national leaders in the near future. Moreover, many Uyghurs are quite wealthy, and they are free to speak Uyghur whenever they want. Uyghur language and culture are also main subjects in public education in Xinjiang. Uyghur businessmen are said laugh when asked about alleged slave labor in the cotton fields and point out that there is a shortage of cotton pickers, and wages are high. Moreover, most cotton growers, many of them Uyghurs, are shifting to mechanized cotton-picking. Xinjiang is one of John Deere's biggest customer areas worldwide. I saw one documentary about a Uyghur cotton farmer whose cotton fields were completely automated. There was not a single slave to be seen! All the farmer and his son did was press a few buttons on his little electronic control panel. He claimed to be a typical Uyghur cotton farmer.
I can't touch on everything, but in closing let me say that there are thousands of mosques in Xinjiang and in China generally, and freedom of worship is guaranteed. I'll never forget one Uyghur imam in a documentary saying that "Everyone is very peaceful and devout here. The only trouble I ever experienced was when some young Uyghur toughs broke into my room in this mosque and demanded that I change it into a Wahhabist mosque. When I refused, they threatened me and smashed many things in the mosque before they left."
In summary, a large-scale hoax is being perpetrated by the Sinophobic US government and by the Uyghur Congress diaspora as well as by a German evangelical preacher who has written several mistake-filled articles about the Uyghurs based on misreadings of statistics published by the government of China. The hoax seems designed to trigger sanctions on China that will hurt the Chinese economy and bring about an ethnically "pure" Sharia-law Islamic Republic in place of the current province of Xinjiang.
Thanks for all that! We in America still tend to put too much faith in reporting by the MSM. It has become clear that much of the reporting on foreign lands is tendentious or even down right false, driven by Deep State control and agenda.
China is best understood as a civilization rather than a country, one so vast and diverse that strong central control has always been necessary. That has meant that throughout China's long civilizational history non-Confucian religions from abroad have also been regarded--rightly and wrongly--as subversive: Taoism, Buddhism, Muslim, Christian. The Chinese approach has been to suppress those that take on political dimensions foreign to Confucian ideas, especially loyalty to an ultimate authority outside the realm of Chinese civilization but also to try to integrate them into Chinese culture. Falun Gong is an example that follows in the tradition of dissident Chinese Buddhist influenced secret societies in some ways. This is also why Christians are persecuted—perhaps based on erroneous perceptions, but fueled by unfortunate history.
It's important to bear in mind that this dynamic is at work in other civilizational areas--India, etc. Russia in some respects, too. The degree of toleration varies, sometimes greatly. This is typical of civilizational areas (Huntington). In the West the civic religion of Liberalism is also increasingly intolerant in its efforts to suppress traditional Christian belief and practice. What some are calling Neo-paganism in the West is more along the lines of a virulent gnostic ideology rather than a civilizational religion. Same goes for some forms of Islam, such as Wahabbism, as well as some types of "Christianity," such as the Zionist cults. Modern Rabbinic Judaism, IMO, falls also into that category.
These are all issues that I took up in the earlier years of Meaning and History. Cf. Archives.
Yes. Thanks for the explanation. This is what I was trying to say yesterday and would have said, except I knew you would come along and say it better. :-)
Stefan, thanks for challenging me on this. I believe I spoke in haste and ignorance. I'll edit that.
Don't go too fast, Mark! I believe I have read that Western anti-Chinese propaganda based on discrimination (or worse) of the Uighurs is exagerrated. I'll see what I can find.
I'm open to that, because I included that phrase based on something I, too, read--but couldn't put a finger on right away.
A 2021 Chinese Government paper entitled "Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang" states
"Currently, rumors, distortions, and complete fabrications are being spread by some foreign media and politicians. This is a calculated campaign to undermine the Chinese government’s enormous efforts to protect ethnic equality, and misrepresent the historic progress that has been made on human rights in the region. Their goals are to discredit China, interfere in China’s internal affairs, restrict China’s development, and destroy stability and prosperity in Xinjiang. This has aroused indignation among the people in Xinjiang and the rest of China, and is condemned by those in the international community who seek to uphold justice.
"Xinjiang is now a stable and orderly society, where the local ethnic groups live in mutual harmony and peace. It is experiencing an optimal period of development. Under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, Xinjiang has achieved moderate prosperity in all respects together with the rest of the country, and has embarked on a new journey of building China into a modern socialist country. This will better ensure ethnic equality, and all the people of Xinjiang will enjoy a happier and more prosperous life."
https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/whitepaper/202107/14/content_WS60ee599bc6d0df57f98dcd8c.html
Is this yet another case of Western intelligence fomenting unrest and discord in order to embarass and undermine the government of a so-called 'adversary'. I can't say. But we have done it before.
Of course, I wouldn't put it past the Chinese Government to spin conditions in Xinjiang more favorably than the picture presented by Western media, but it does look like there may well be two sides to this coin.
The subject bears more research, but from what little I have read this afternoon, it appears that a minority group of extremist and separatist Uighurs have used violence and terrorism for political purposes and the Chinese Government has cracked down on them.
It also appears that large majorities of Uighurs in Xinjiang are happy and peaceful. They are well-integrated into the dominant Han culture but enjoy significant minority rights. Certainly, the economic data appears to show growing Uighur prosperity in recent years.
Some of our minorities in the US should be so fortunate.
Thanks. I found the source of my original statement:
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William J. Casey, CIA Director (1981)
A couple of weeks ago I finished reading the book "Operation Gladio", by Paul L. Williams - there is some info about the Uyghurs used to instigate a color revolution in China. Chapter 22 focuses on Abdullah Cath, "the Gladio contract killer involved with the attempt to assassinate Pope Joh Paul II', and pg. 268-271 provides more detail on how this operative was sent to Xinjiang province in China to stir up trouble among the Uyghurs. According to the author, militants were sent from Xinjiang to Afghanistan by the CIA for guerilla warfare training.