The US State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) released a report Wednesday accusing China of actively attempting to "manipulate and dominate global discourse on Xinjiang." According to it, China is accused of using its "messengers" to spread disinformation, attack China critics, amplify "positive stories," and so on.
The current round of public opinion warfare between China and the US-led West over Xinjiang arguably began in 2018, when anti-China "scholar" Adrian Zenz's "studies" on so-called human rights abuses in Xinjiang started to attract much attention from the US media and Washington. Now almost five years into this struggle, the US' trick is crystal clear - to use its dominant position in the global discourse and its shamelessness in the geopolitical game to smear and attack China on all possible fronts, at multiple levels, and through various means.As the West, mainly the US, continues to concoct and spread lies, China's efforts to tell its story over Xinjiang-related issues aim at refuting and stopping the spreading of disinformation, which is far from the complete picture of the situation.
When it comes to Xinjiang-related issues, the West simply doesn't or refuses to understand its complexity. Western countries view this matter through the monotonous lens of human rights and freedom they are so accustomed to. But in fact, China's governance in Xinjiang involves the unity of China's ethnic groups and the combat of separatism, terrorism and extremism - key elements that affect the development and security of the Xinjiang region and the whole country.
The US and Western smears are far from the reality in Xinjiang, and the US State Department has described China's self-defense as "spreading disinformation," which shows their inherent disregard for facts and refusal to self-reflect.
In many ways, public opinion warfare over Xinjiang is a competition for a fair position of global discourse, said the experts. The US wants to destroy China's capability to defend and protect itself in such a contest, aiming to prove its hegemony in global discourse and gain the upper hand when dealing with the rising nation. The final goal is to knock Beijing down entirely so that Washington can act even more recklessly.
According to Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, when playing the geopolitical game, Washington tends to intensify the attacks against its opponents - Beijing, for example - once it feels like it's in a weak position. Therefore, since the US is deep in political and economic crises, it has chosen to bash China, prompted by a sense of weakness. However, the US has to come to realization that it's futile to push China into any kind of warfare to solve its own domestic problems.
This public opinion warfare is unlikely to end soon. Chinese military observer Wang Qiang told the Global Times that smearing China on Xinjiang-related issues means gaining considerable outputs with few inputs for Washington, be they from the perspective of containing China, maintaining white people's dominant position in the world, or strengthening the West's unity.
As the GEC report proves, the US will certainly continue to step up the smearing of China on Xinjiang-related issues. On the one hand, it would continue to create more barriers for China to speak out. On the other hand, we should not be surprised if it increases the usage of the measures it has accused China of in the report to manipulate global opinion on Xinjiang. Nevertheless, China is ready to make counterattacks and expose the lies from the West one by one. The play has just begun.
In the past decade, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region witnessed booming development with regional GDP climbing to 1.6 trillion yuan ($0.23 trillion) last year, which doubled the figure of 2012, and the people's sense of public security has been elevated to 99.14 percent compared with 87.58 percent 10 years ago. An expert said such numbers serve as an iron counterstrike against rumors and slanders against the region coming from Western countries, especially the US.
The Xinjiang govt held a press conference on Saturday telling the public the region's achievements in the past decade. During this time, 3.06 million population were lifted out of poverty, and absolute poverty was solved in the region.
The region's GDP in 2021 reached 1.6 trillion yuan, double the figure of 2021, which was 0.74 trillion. Xinjiang also created 4.99 million jobs in the past 10 years. Basically, all people with the ability to work have been employed, according to the conference.Xinjiang is also edging up its infrastructure. It has more than 8,768 kilometers of railroad line in service, the total length of roads reached 217, 300 kilometers. The region owns 24 civilian airports, which is more than other parts of the country.
Meanwhile, public sense of safety jumped to 99.14 percent in 2021 from 87.58 percent in 2012. For the past few years, the US has smeared China's counter-terrorism efforts in Xinjiang. In the latest move, the US banned all goods produced in China's Xinjiang in June, following the enactment of a forced labor law signed by President Joe Biden last year.
Wang Jiang, an expert at the Institute of China's Borderland Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, told the Global Times that since 2018, Western countries have intensified their slander and edged up efforts of using Xinjiang as a card to contain China in the super power competition arena. Yet these numbers reflect the truth of Xinjiang and defy Western lies, by showing to the world how much Xinjiang has progressed in its own development, said Wang.
Wang is also confident that Xinjiang will keep up the momentum in the future, despite pressure from Western countries. Xinjiang is supported by the vast domestic market, and it is gradually connecting with neighboring countries, thus as long as Xinjiang seizes the opportunity, its development will be further stimulated, said Wang.
Statistics from the conference also show that Xinjiang's business environment is improving. According to the conference, the region has established trade and economic relations with 176 countries and regions, has more than 2.21 million market entities, which is twice the number in 2012.
A total of 6,242 trains have started from Xinjiang to travel to Europe and central Asia, with an annual increase of 55.1 percent, which has changed Xinjiang from an enclosed inland to the frontier of opening up.
Reported on August 25-27 by the Global Times (China).
