An ‘academic institute’ tied to an antisemitic Italian ‘Nazi-Maoist’ linked to Iran has released a report denying China’s atrocities against the Uyghurs. It’s been loudly welcomed by America's conspiracy theory-riven, autocrat-loving, ‘anti-imperialist’ left
Three "academic institutes" have released a new report denying China's genocide of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. Its "findings" reject all charges of atrocities being perpetrated by China, smears Uyghur activists – and have been loudly welcomed by America's conspiracy theory-riven authoritarian left.
The latter's unfortunately wide reach means it's worth delving into the report, its backers and what is really motivating their morally and factually unhinged revisionism.
The report, entitled, Xinjiang: Understanding Complexity, Building Peace, is a strange and esoteric document that states from the get go that it aims to undermine the "West's charges" of genocide and detention camps, to counter the "simplistic" and "sensationalist" accusations against China, otherwise known as "China-bashing," that legitimize "sectarian and "violent" groups, and to foreground testimonies from experts who have visited the region.
The report ends with a call for Uyghur activists and others who, only pages earlier, were accused of supporting jihadism, to "come and see" with their own eyes "how good life is in Xinjiang nowadays." Despite this eagerness to "tell a very different story," barely ten out 38 pages in the report actually relate to current issues around mass detention. The rest is taken up with a Wikipedia-style fly-over history of the ancient civilizations and anti-Soviet rebellions in Central Asian states, and esoteric conflicts between Turkic peoples and the Tsars, Soviets, and Han Chinese.
Contextualizing things is dumb because people, places and events exist as they are without the need to explain things.
The neolib mantra.