What Do Chinese People Think Is Happening in Xinjiang?

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2021-06-09 17:00:05

An Uyghur instructor stands near a window during a class at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute as a Chinese flag flies outside, as seen during a government organized visit for foreign journalists, in Urumqi in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on April 22, 2021.

Over recent months, China’s government has been in overdrive to combat allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. To cite just one example, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying dismissed the charges of genocide as “the most preposterous lie of the century, an outrageous insult and affront to the Chinese people, and a gross breach of international law and basic norms governing international relations.”

It’s easy to write that off as propaganda, but Hua is far from alone in expressing such a sentiment. Many average Chinese agree – even some who have heard first-hand testimony from victims.

“I have had friends who were highly educated, but after they heard my story they would think that I’m brainwashed,” Jewher Ilham told The Diplomat. She became a prominent activist after her father, Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, was detained in China. He was later sentenced to life in prison; his crime, according to his daughter and many of his fellow academics, was trying to advance mutual understanding between China’s ethnic Han majority and Uyghurs.

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