MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]

  • 0 Posts
  • 22 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
Cake day: January 21st, 2021
  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tothe_dunk_tank•:stormfront: decides being sinophobic is more important than pro-choice
    ·
    2 years ago

    The average westerner does not know that the term genocide has a strict legal definition that requires a high standard of proof with clear intent for physical destruction of an ethnic, racial, national, or religious group. This means that you can have horrific atrocities, cultural destruction, and crimes against humanity, while still falling short of genocide due to the lack of sufficient evidence for genocidal intent. This is the reason why even historically pro-western anticommunist organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International can credulously cite even dubious right-wing western atrocity propagandists like Zenz and Radio Free Asia, yet still do not declare genocide and opt for declaring crimes against humanity instead. Even the US State Department’s own lawyers determined that they did not have sufficient credible evidence for genocidal intent, but that did not stop Trump’s far-right neoconservative secretary of state from declaring genocide anyway. Articles in mainstream liberal outlets also argued against calling the repression in Xinjiang a genocide as well, although they still do criticize China for human rights abuse (as they should as the Xinjiang government has been conducting a counter-terrorism/anti-separatism campaign with overzealous enforcement, overly vague "anti-extremism" laws, and very little regard for due process):

    • https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/biden-should-withdraw-unjustified-xinjiang-genocide-allegation-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-and-william-schabas-2021-04
    • https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/02/13/genocide-is-the-wrong-word-for-the-horrors-of-xinjiang
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/08/china-biden-us-conflict-escalation-xinjiang-genocide/
    • https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129325/xinjiang-what-west-doesnt-tell-you-about-chinas-war-terror
    • https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210210_98292303
  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tonews•Here we go again (uygher genocide)
    ·
    3 years ago

    The article does not allege genocide and the alleged police files do not present really any new significant information. We already knew that people sent to de-radicalization were overwhelmingly not doing it voluntarily. The notion of extremists just suddenly deciding to willingly sign up for de-radicalization was always asinine. The article tries to dig up and highlight the worst cases for detention that they could find with listed reasons that lack much context. There were certainly cases that appear to display a disregard for due process during this re-education campaign under Chen Quanguo (party secretary of Xinjiang from 2016-2021 who had also developed a reputation for repressive security crackdowns in Tibet) and Shohrat Zakir (Uyghur governor of Xinjiang from 2015-2021) with heavy-handed enforcement of vague ”anti-extremism” measures by local officials (much of the government bureaucracy and law enforcement being Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in areas of southern Xinjiang while mostly Han in areas of northern Xinjiang like Urumqi). Unsurprisingly, the end results are at least some false positives. Clearly not every single detainee that was sent to re-radicalization centers/re-education camps was necessarily a salafi terrorist or violent separatist. There was also very likely at least some sporadic abuse as you see in many prison contexts. The article fails to mention that the re-education camps were closed down in late 2019. Imo it's reasonable to say that the Xinjiang regional government under Chen Quanguo and Shohrat Zakir overreacted with overzealous counter-terrorist and anti-separatist policies even with the active presence of violent terrorist threats. Hopefully the repression will continue to ease with Chen Quanguo being recently replaced by Ma Xingrui as party secretary in Xinjiang and Erken Tuniyaz being the new governor.

    The photographs give human form to a policy designed to deliberately target Uyghur families as a repository of identity and culture and - in China’s own words - to “break their roots, break their lineage, break their connections, break their origins”.

    This quote is from a religious affairs official of Turkic heritage that was taken out of context by BBC and a large number of other western media outlets. Maimuer was referring to “two-faced people”:

    Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins. Completely shovel up the roots of “two-faced people,” dig them out, and vow to fight these two-faced people until the end.

    The term “two-faced people” in Xinjiang refers to party or government officials who claim to be opposed to extremism while refusing to adequately support and enforce anti-extremism policy. This includes Han officials like Wang Yongzhi, who was removed from his government position for not sufficiently implementing anti-extremist measures. A state media outlet in Xinjiang attacked him as being a typical example of “two-faced people”:

    Wang Yongzhi lost his ideals and convictions. He is a typical ‘two-faced man.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tochapotraphouse•*Permanently Deleted*
    ·
    3 years ago

    Some articles from mainstream publications that acknowledge that the repression in Xinjiang did not reach the level of genocide and also provide pushback against the US State Department narrative:

    • https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129325/xinjiang-what-west-doesnt-tell-you-about-chinas-war-terror
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/08/china-biden-us-conflict-escalation-xinjiang-genocide/
    • https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/biden-should-withdraw-unjustified-xinjiang-genocide-allegation-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-and-william-schabas-2021-04

    Gareth Porter and Max Blumenthal provided in-depth coverage of Xinjiang policies and refuted atrocity propaganda from the far-right ideologue Adrian Zenz. Ajit Singh also exposed how the Newlines Institute report relied upon the discredited work of the religious extremist Adrian Zenz (who claimed to be "led by God" against China), the US government propaganda outlet, Radio Free Asia, right-wing US government/NED-funded groups like the World Uyghur Congress, and a collection of right-wing neoconservative regime change activists that include figures like David Kilgour and David Matas, who have ties to the far-right, anti-China Falun Gong cult. The Qiao Collective has an ongoing extensive overview of events and coverage of Xinjiang. Economist Asatar Bair also analyzed Western claims of repression in Xinjiang in a number of detailed threads:

    • https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1366835785769476096.html
    • https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1371620935917170689.html
    • https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1367632236007202819.html

    Another common source of Xinjiang atrocity propaganda is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which is an organization founded by the Australian government and is funded by the US State Department, the Australian Department of Defense, NATO, and military contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. ASPI also continues to collaborate with the far-right Israeli Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA), which is notoriously Islamophobic.

    There is clearly a crack down on basically anything associated with recent foreign far-right Salafi influence linked to terrorist organizations like the Turkistan Islamic Party/ETIM. This even extends to restrictions against ultra-conservative Salafi customs like burqas, niqab, and full-face veils that are not part of traditional Uyghur culture or Islamic practices. Uyghurs in Xinjiang overwhelmingly practice a moderate form of Sufism and traditionally do not even observe hijab. These types of restrictions against Salafi/Wahhabi practices have also been seen in many Muslim countries including Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Chad, Senegal, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Imo some of these restrictions and counter-terrorism policies can get repressive and draconian. The more religious aspects of Uyghur society could still be potentially marginalized as a consequence of heavy-handed enforcement of “anti-extremism” measures. The CPC may also potentially face some blowback if they continue to get too overzealous in their counter-terrorism measures (mass surveillance, excessive security check points, and sloppy profiling where they may end up with false positives in re-education/deradicalization centers). So far, there have been no terrorist attacks since 2017.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tochapotraphouse•*Permanently Deleted*
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    4 years ago

    From a 2018 article by the Al-Mesbar Studies & Research Center that provides some context on the recent rise of a violent jihadist-takfiri strain of Salafism in China:

    With the penetration of Global Salafism of the Takfiri and Jihadi strain in the 1990s worldwide, Central Asian Muslims were affected. A tiny minority of China’s Uighur Muslim community in Xinjiang and Uzbekistan’s Uzbekh community joined the global movement led by al Qaeda. The Uighur group known as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), originated as an ethno-nationalist group, but transformed from a separatist into a politico-religious movement with Salafi orientations in the late 1990s and 2000s. Under al Qaeda’s influence, ETIM embraced Global Salafism fighting not only Eastern but Western Turkistan but beyond. Renamed Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), the group fight side by side with other Salafi groups – al Qaeda, Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Islamic jihad Union, Jabat al Nusra, and the Islamic State.

    The vast majority of the Chinese Muslims are Hanafi and Sufi, schools antithetical to Salafism and its virulent strains. Like other countries, China is challenged by the growth of Salafism especially the Jihadist and Takfiri strain.

    Today, Muslims worldwide including in China are influenced by the spectrum of Salafist ideologies. Its most virulent strain, Salafi-Jihadi-Takfiri ideology influences a tiny segment of the Uighurs to join TIP and serve in the frontlines of Xinjiang, Pakistan-Afghanistan and Syria-Iraq theatres of conflict. They present a threat to China and beyond. The current threat to China stems from foreign fighters who return with the motivation, skills set and a network to mount attacks. The counter terrorism resources largely focus on suppressing the terrorist groups, not engaging the vulnerable and affected communities.

    As TIP needs a constant supply of fighters, its strategy is to train their fighters both in the Afghanistan-Pakistan and Iraq-Syria region and then bring them back to fight the Chinese state. Due to the appeal of the ideology and the lack of an ideological counter weight, jihadist-takfiri ideology continues to spread. As such, the terrorists have been able to replenish their human losses and material wastage. The TIP pace of recruitment outpace Chinese government catch and kill policy. It is paramount that suppressive measures are reinforced with strategies to engage community to disengage from extremism and violence.

    From an IBTimes article:

    Uighur fighters trained by the Islamic State in Iraq have vowed to plant the jihadists’ black flag in China promising that the country will “flow in rivers of blood”.

    In a video released on social media and authenticated by the SITE terror monitoring website, the ethnic Uighur fighters in Iraq from western China’s Xinjiang region vow revenge against the country’s communist government in a half-hour long video.

    In the footage, which shows the Isis fighters from the majority Muslim ethnic group training, one shot shows an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping followed by a burning Chinese flag.

    “Hey, brothers. Today, we are fighting with infidels across the world. I’m telling you this: Don’t be complacent in this. Stay strong,” one of the fighters says, according to Uighur speakers who analysed the video for Reuters.

    The Chinese government has expressed concern over Uighurs who have fought for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, travelling illegally to the region via Southeast Asia and Turkey.

    In response to a rise in Islamophobic rhetoric on social media in China after some of the terrorist attacks, the Communist Party of China banned Islamophobic speech on the internet and social media.

    From an article that provides further details on the crisis in Xinjiang:

    Between 1990 and 2016, the Xinjiang region was shaken by thousands of terrorist attacks traced to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

    Other members have fought with al-Qaeda in Syria and other countries “for so-called battle practice” before returning to Xinjiang.

    The U.S. has provided ideological support to separatist movements in Xinjiang through various “non-governmental organizations,” like the World Uyghur Congress, an outfit funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, long a front group for U.S. interference in other countries’ affairs.

    ETIM was designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations in 2002. It calls for the separation of Xinjiang from the rest of China in order to establish an ultra-right theocratic state. Luring people in with the promise of paradise, the ETIM has assaulted traditional Uyghur culture by forbidding people from making music, drinking wine, singing and dancing, or crying at funerals. ETIM also proclaims that taking out bank loans or allowing women to work and earn money is not permissible, not halal.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tochapotraphouse•*Permanently Deleted*
    ·
    4 years ago

    Omer Kanat was the Senior Editor of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service. Radio Free Asia is part of the US Agency for Global Media, which was established with the purpose of “advancing the goals of United States foreign policy” and being “consistent with the broad foreign policy objectives of the United States” as part of its broadcasting standards. One of its top broadcasting principles includes "The capability to provide a surge capacity to support United States foreign policy objectives during crises abroad." The New York Times in 1977 elaborated on the CIA’s role with Radio Free Asia in building an anti-Communist propaganda network directed at China.

    The spokesman of the NED-funded separatist World Uyghur Congress refused to condemn the murder of the popular Uyghur imam Juma Tahir, who was a voice for peace in Xinjiang and consistently condemned Salafi jihadist terrorist attacks. Tahir was the imam of the largest mosque in China known for warning followers to not fall “into traps set by exiled separatists” and opposed foreign ultra-conservative Salafi customs like burqas/face veils/niqab that were not part of traditional Uyghur culture. He was an enemy to far-right Salafist separatists and had received threatening letters in the past but was never afraid according to his daughter. He was murdered by Salafi Uyghur terrorists in 2014. Some other far-right separatist groups went even further like the Turkey-based Uyghur Eastern Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association that outright endorsed the killing of Juma Tahir, praised attacks in Xinjiang, posted on its website content from the Turkistan Islamic Party/ETIM, and also sent Uyghurs on missions in Syria during the Syrian Civil War.

    The Uyghur Human Rights Project and the World Uyghur Congress are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded by the United States government. According to Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the US legislation establishing the NED and was the president of the US-backed organization:

    A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.

    Louisa Greve worked for the National Endowment for Democracy (a CIA cutout) for 24 years. She is now the Director of Global Advocacy for the Washington D.C.-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, which is funded by her old employer, the NED.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]toMain•Lets talk about Genocide
    ·
    4 years ago

    Full-face coverings, face veils, burqas, and niqab are not considered part of traditional Uyghur culture. The same is true for very long beards although laws against that just seem pointlessly draconian imo. They're basically just trying to crack down on anything associated with recent foreign far-right Salafi jihadist influence from terrorist organizations like the Turkistan Islamic Party. There are Uyghur Muslim leaders and imams like Juma Tahir who have been discouraging ultra-conservative Salafi customs (full-face coverings being one of them) that they believe are threatening traditional Uyghur culture and Islamic practices. While there may not be a state-led effort to specifically crush traditional Uyghur culture, the Chinese government may still potentially face some blowback if they continue to get too overzealous in their counter-terrorism measures (intrusive mass surveillance, excessive security check points, and sloppy profiling).

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]toMain•China Killed the Communist Movement
    ·
    4 years ago

    Also worth mentioning that Wilfred Chan, who is a founder of Lausan, worked for the hawkish and vehemently anti-China United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission of the US government and was one of the many who helped produce their 2011 Report to Congress which recommended a more hostile foreign policy against China. After working for CNN for years as well as interning at the White House he managed to even get their hawkish 2019 Report to Congress to cite one of his articles. Lausan has also recently put out a Xinjiang hit piece to help contribute even further to Western anti-China atrocity propaganda by casually citing an Adrian Zenz article as well as Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) which is an organization founded by the Australian government and is funded by the US State Department, the Australian Department of Defense, and military contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tovideos•USA is in Afghanistan to "impact" China
    ·
    4 years ago

    A little more context to the situation:

    Between 1990 and 2016, the Xinjiang region was shaken by thousands of terrorist attacks traced to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

    Other members have fought with al-Qaeda in Syria and other countries “for so-called battle practice” before returning to Xinjiang.

    The U.S. has provided ideological support to separatist movements in Xinjiang through various “non-governmental organizations,” like the World Uyghur Congress, an outfit funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, long a front group for U.S. interference in other countries’ affairs.

    ETIM was designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations in 2002. It calls for the separation of Xinjiang from the rest of China in order to establish an ultra-right theocratic state. Luring people in with the promise of paradise, the ETIM has assaulted traditional Uyghur culture by forbidding people from making music, drinking wine, singing and dancing, or crying at funerals. ETIM also proclaims that taking out bank loans or allowing women to work and earn money is not permissible, not halal.

    Pro-CPC Uyghurs including imams like Juma Tahir, who condemned the ETIM/Turkestan Islamic Party and the recent foreign far-right Salafi jihadist influence which threatened traditional Uyghur culture and traditional Uyghur Islamic practices, have been attacked by Salafi terrorists. Juma Tahir, who was the Uyghur imam of the largest mosque in China known for warning followers to not fall "into traps set by exiled separatists" and opposed recent adoptions of foreign ultra-conservative Salafi customs like burqas/face veils/niqab that were not part of traditional Uyghur culture, was recently assassinated by young Uyghur Salafi extremists. Aini Aishan who had been radicalized by terrorists and was involved in the assassination plot had only a middle school education. Tahir's predecessor was nearly killed by terrorists years before.

    The World Uyghur Congress with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (a CIA cutout) refused to condemn the murder of Juma Tahir. The Turkey-based Uyghur Eastern Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association endorsed the killing of Juma Tahir, praised attacks in Xinjiang, posted on its website content from the Turkistan Islamic Party/ETIM, and also sent Uyghurs on missions in Syria during the Syrian Civil War.

    From an IBTimes article:

    Uighur fighters trained by the Islamic State in Iraq have vowed to plant the jihadists' black flag in China promising that the country will "flow in rivers of blood".

    In a video released on social media and authenticated by the SITE terror monitoring website, the ethnic Uighur fighters in Iraq from western China's Xinjiang region vow revenge against the country's communist government in a half-hour long video.

    In the footage, which shows the Isis fighters from the majority Muslim ethnic group training, one shot shows an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping followed by a burning Chinese flag.

    "Hey, brothers. Today, we are fighting with infidels across the world. I'm telling you this: Don't be complacent in this. Stay strong," one of the fighters says, according to Uighur speakers who analysed the video for Reuters.

    The Chinese government has expressed concern over Uighurs who have fought for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, travelling illegally to the region via Southeast Asia and Turkey.

    In response to a surge in Islamophobic rhetoric on social media in China after some of the terrorist attacks, the CPC banned Islamophobic speech on the internet and social media.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tothe_dunk_tank•This is going to be painful.
    ·
    4 years ago

    There's a massive difference between critical support and uncritically regurgitating US state department narratives against its regime change targets. The OP here may have swayed a bit too far towards uncritical support while BadEmpanada, despite having some good content, far too often sways in the other extreme on certain subjects.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tothe_dunk_tank•This is going to be painful.
    ·
    4 years ago

    BadEmpanada is an ideological mess with inconsistent positions. Generally pro-Cuba, but then smears the states that Castro himself hailed as "the most promising hope and the best example for all Third World countries" and are responsible for helping to keep Cuba alive while under a crippling Western imperialist siege. Claims to be pro-Vietnam, but then attacks countries that have a practically identical NEP-style economic model. Only critically supports the states and projects that pose virtually no threat to the imperial core. Can't stop smearing and strawmanning counter-hegemonic positions.

    You know you've royally fucked up as a socialist and become a useful idiot when your videos are being promoted by the neocon ghoul Eliot Higgins. A little bit of background information on Higgins:

    Higgins is the founder of the pro-NATO blog Bellingcat, which is funded directly by the US government’s regime-change arm the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious CIA cutout. Bellingcat is also part of a UK government-financed program backed by the British Foreign Office. And Higgins’ former employer is the Atlantic Council, NATO’s unofficial think tank, also bankrolled by Western governments as well as Gulf monarchies and the arms industry.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]toaskchapo•So who is Navalny? I've never heard of him before the past week or so, but now libs seem to be a big fan of him. Who is he?
    ·
    4 years ago

    From a Jacobin article by Alexey Sakhnin who is a member of Left Front:

    Like most politicians in modern Russia, Navalny’s worldview was formed under the total dominance of right-wing, market liberal ideology. In 2000, he joined the liberal Yabloko party. In those years, by his own account, he was a classic neoliberal, supporting a regime of low public spending, radical privatization, reduction of social guarantees, “small government,” and total freedom for business.

    However, Navalny soon realized that a purely liberal politics has no prospect of success in Russia. For most people, this ideology was discredited by the radical reforms of the 1990s. It symbolized poverty, injustice, inequality, humiliation, and theft. And after pro-Western liberal ideology had lost so much luster in the eyes of the population, it ceased to be of interest to the ruling class either. Following Vladimir Putin, Russian officials, politicians, and oligarchs proclaimed themselves as patriots and true inheritors of the Russian state. Liberal parties turned out to be of no use to anyone.

    Navalny soon found a new ideological niche. In the late 2000s, he declared himself a nationalist. He participated in the far-right Russian Marches, waged war on “illegal immigration,” and even launched campaign “Stop Feeding the Caucasus” directed against government subsidies to poor, ethnic minority-populated autonomous regions in the south of the country. It was a time when right-wing sentiments were widespread, and urban youth sympathized with ultra-right groups almost en masse. It seemed to Navalny that this wind would fill his sails — and partly, it worked.

    But Navalny did not get lost among the petty nationalist “führers.” He found a special niche that made him a hero far beyond the boundaries of the right-wing radical subculture. He became the country’s main fighter against corruption. He would buy small amounts of shares in large state-owned companies and thus get access to their documents. On this basis, he conducted and published high-profile investigations. Many of them were brilliant journalistic work — though some critics suspected that Navalny was simply involved in the “media wars” among rival financial-industrial groups, receiving “orders” from them and information that compromised their competitors.

    Navalny’s closest aide, Leonid Volkov, said in an interview that it was necessary to convince the Russian elite that an opposition victory would be better for them than a corrupt Putin government. But to do this, it was necessary to get rid of left-wing allies, who scared off big business. So Navalny split the oppositional coalition and when leftist leaders were thrown in jail, he declined to intercede on their behalf.

    The Kremlin has always suspected that Navalny enjoys the tacit support of part of the elite. In 2012, the correspondence of some of the leaders of the liberal opposition was published, and it spoke of the possible financing of Navalny by a group of prominent oligarchs.

    It is also important for Navalny that his criticism of social inequality does not turn the ruling establishment against him. Therefore, he is careful to make sure that his social populism does not overstep the line. Sharp criticism of the luxury of Putin’s entourage does not lead him toward radical social demands. Navalny is against revising the results of the criminal privatization of the 1990s or the redistribution of the national income in favor of working people. The most he agrees to is a small “compensation fee” that some oligarchs must pay to legitimize the property seized in the 1990s.

    Inequality, then, will remain intact. Among the points of Navalny’s program on “fair courts” and political freedoms, there is also one on future privatization. And this is exactly what would likely alienate most Russians from him if it did reach the spotlight.

    His People's Alliance party called for "drastically reducing government interference in the economy" in 2013. The Navalny-led party also called for stopping support for "rogue states" (basically socialist governments like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Laos, China, and Vietnam as well as other governments like Iran, Belarus, and Syria that Putin's government had been increasingly economically supporting) and partnering up with Western countries.

    In November of 2020, Navalny smeared indigenous socialist president of Bolivia Evo Morales who had been ousted in a far-right coup after winning a reelection:

    The corrupt president, who illegally held power at the expense of lies and fabrications, fled the country.

    Katya Kazbek, who is a fiercely anti-Putin Russian socialist writer, has a thread on Navalny's reactionary history that often gets ignored by Western coverage and also did an interview with Royce Kurmelovs that was posted at the Grayzone.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]toMain•*Permanently Deleted*
    ·
    4 years ago

    A little more context to the situation:

    Between 1990 and 2016, the Xinjiang region was shaken by thousands of terrorist attacks traced to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

    Other members have fought with al-Qaeda in Syria and other countries “for so-called battle practice” before returning to Xinjiang.

    The U.S. has provided ideological support to separatist movements in Xinjiang through various “non-governmental organizations,” like the World Uyghur Congress, an outfit funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, long a front group for U.S. interference in other countries’ affairs.

    ETIM was designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations in 2002. It calls for the separation of Xinjiang from the rest of China in order to establish an ultra-right theocratic state. Luring people in with the promise of paradise, the ETIM has assaulted traditional Uyghur culture by forbidding people from making music, drinking wine, singing and dancing, or crying at funerals. ETIM also proclaims that taking out bank loans or allowing women to work and earn money is not permissible, not halal.

    Pro-CPC Uyghurs including imams like Juma Tahir who condemned the ETIM/Turkestan Islamic Party and the recent foreign far-right Salafi jihadist influence which threatened traditional Uyghur culture and traditional Uyghur Islamic practices have been attacked by Salafi terrorists. Juma Tahir who was the Uyghur imam of the largest mosque in China known for warning followers to not fall "into traps set by exiled separatists" and opposed recent adoptions of foreign conservative Salafi customs like burqas/niqab/face veils that were not part of traditional Uyghur culture was recently assassinated by young Uyghur Salafi extremists. Aini Aishan who had been radicalized by terrorists and was involved in the assassination plot had only a middle school education. Tahir's predecessor was nearly killed by terrorists years before.

    The World Uyghur Congress with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (a CIA cutout) refused to condemn the murder of Juma Tahir. The Turkey-based Uyghur Eastern Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association endorsed the killing of Juma Tahir, praised attacks in Xinjiang, posted on its website content from the Turkistan Islamic Party/ETIM, and also sent Uyghurs on missions in Syria during the Syrian Civil War.

    From an IBTimes article:

    Uighur fighters trained by the Islamic State in Iraq have vowed to plant the jihadists' black flag in China promising that the country will "flow in rivers of blood".

    In a video released on social media and authenticated by the SITE terror monitoring website, the ethnic Uighur fighters in Iraq from western China's Xinjiang region vow revenge against the country's communist government in a half-hour long video.

    In the footage, which shows the Isis fighters from the majority Muslim ethnic group training, one shot shows an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping followed by a burning Chinese flag.

    "Hey, brothers. Today, we are fighting with infidels across the world. I'm telling you this: Don't be complacent in this. Stay strong," one of the fighters says, according to Uighur speakers who analysed the video for Reuters.

    The Chinese government has expressed concern over Uighurs who have fought for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, travelling illegally to the region via Southeast Asia and Turkey.

    In response to a surge in Islamophobic rhetoric on social media in China after some of the terrorist attacks, the CPC banned Islamophobic speech on the internet and social media.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]tonews•The Intercept just did a China-Uyghur story and it's full of Adrian Zenz quotes and reports.
    ·
    4 years ago

    I've always felt that Byler was a little sus. Darren Byler is a fellow at Center for Asian Studies and China Made and writes for China Channel which are all financially supported by the Henry Luce Foundation which funds anticommunist organizations like the Atlantic Council (a NATO cutout), the Asia Foundation (was heavily funded and originally established by the CIA), and the Council on Foreign Relations. The Henry Luce Foundation was established by the vehemently anticommunist media tycoon Henry R. Luce.

    Rushan Abbas also boasted of her “extensive experience working with US government agencies, including Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of State, and various US intelligence agencies.” Abbas was a National Endowment for Democracy (a CIA cutout) grantee and worked for Radio Free Asia.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]toMain•DemSoc 🌹 imperialst Owen Jones manufacturing consent for war with China like he did Libya
    ·
    3 years ago

    The Lausan article casually cites the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which is an organization founded by the Australian government and is funded by the US State Department, the Australian Department of Defense, and military contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

    Lausan then cites Critical China Scholars, which admits to using Chuang (which has ties to the National Endowment for Democracy (a CIA cutout) and Radio Free Asia through its reliance on Han Dongfang/China Labor Bulletin) and New Bloom (run by Brian Hioe, who was a fellow at the Taiwanese government’s “Taiwan Foundation for Democracy”, which is one of the largest donors to the right-wing Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation) as top resources.

    It also cites Darren Byler who is a fellow at Center for Asian Studies and China Made, which are financially supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, which also funds anticommunist organizations like the Atlantic Council (a NATO cutout), the Asia Foundation (was heavily funded and originally established by the CIA) and the Council on Foreign Relations. The Henry Luce Foundation had been established by the vehemently anticommunist media tycoon Henry R. Luce, who helped shape US foreign policy during the Cold War. Byler is also a fellow at the Kissinger Institute.

    The article then bemoans that "Trump ignored calls to sanction China" for its Xinjiang policies while referencing a New York Times article that cites Rushan Abbas, who has boasted of her “extensive experience working with US government agencies, including Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of State, and various US intelligence agencies.” Abbas was a National Endowment for Democracy grantee, worked for Radio Free Asia, and even worked for the US State Department in Guantanamo Bay, which had imprisoned Uyghurs.

    They then cite an AP article that relies extensively on the dodgy work of the far-right evangelical Adrian Zenz from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the neoconservative Jamestown Foundation. His work, which he claims is "led by God", relies on wild unfounded assumptions, misrepresenting statistics and taking figures out of context to build dubious narratives, blatant misunderstandings of how Chinese family planning policies even work, North Korean defector-style questionable testimonies that have inconsistencies, and ignoring the impact of massive improvements in education, poverty alleviation, and economic development.

    Also worth mentioning that Wilfred Chan, who is a founder of Lausan, worked for the hawkish and vehemently anti-China United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission of the US government and was one of the many who helped produce their 2011 Report to Congress, which recommended a more hostile foreign policy against China. After working for CNN for years, he managed to even get the hawkish 2019 Report to Congress to cite one of his articles. He also interned at the White House. Despite Lausan's claim to be "decolonial", they've engaged in blatant colonial apologism with their bizzare condemnation of India for liberating Goa from white Portuguese colonizers.

    Nevertheless, there are still some very real problems with China's counter-terrorism measures which can get overzealous. I know from even pro-China sources that mass-surveillance is still very much a reality in Xinjiang years after the Salafi terrorist attacks and that even regular Uyghurs can unfortunately get profiled pretty hard at airports. De-radicalization programs will always be a source of controversy and it does not appear that the Xinjiang regional government had a solid system of due process in place. There's also an asinine restriction on beard length in Xinjiang just because having a very long beard is commonly associated with foreign Salafi jihadist influence and is supposedly not part of traditional Sunni Uyghur culture. The more religious aspects of Uyghur society could be potentially marginalized as a consequence of heavy-handed enforcement of "anti-extremism" measures. The CPC did at least finally ban Islamophobic speech on the internet and social media after the surge in Islamophobic rhetoric on social media in China after some of the terrorist attacks.

  • MalarkeyDetected [none/use name]toMain•Chuangcn aint good folks
    ·
    4 years ago

    Chuangcn is a media outlet that's geared towards a Western audience and presents many critiques against China from an ostensibly left perspective. Chuangcn gets criticized for its coverage and its ties to some anticommunist organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy, Radio Free Asia, and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy which was one of the largest funders of the right-wing Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. It gives some people Partisan Review vibes. These tweets were actually originally compiled by a redditor who has been posting it on multiple ML subreddits and has been going overboard in trying to portray chapo.chat as being somehow anti-China which is pretty ridiculous considering chapo.chat's history in being one of the more pro-China leaning and anti-imperialist online leftist spaces.