On Octobet 5, 2022, the Washington Post published a front section srtory, "Uyghyr crackdown eases, bu Xinjiang;s scars endure," by Eva Dou and Kate Cadell. While documenting ongoing human rights problems and a lack of transparency in Xinjiang province in China, including ongoing use of forced labor in prisons in industrial parks, in the wake of criticism of its record in that province by the UN, the article reports that it appears that China is no longer sending Uyghur and Kazakh Muslim minority members to infamous "reeducation" camps. Indeed, many of these are now being closed entirely, with the story providing a photo of a former one, now closed, in Kashgar, second largest city in the province and a famous stop on the historic Silk Road.
I applaud this development and hope it continues. Besides the UN criticism, I suspect that Xi Jinping is looking for some favorable news in anticipation of his bid to get a third five year term as Party Chair in the forthcoming CCP congress. I hope this new and improved policy continues beyond that event.
There continue to be other human rights problems in China. Repression of speech and political activity continues to increase in Hong Kong, with a resulting exodus of people happening. There continue to be auxiliary health and other issues associated with the strong lockdowns associated with the pandemic, although those have resulted in low rates of the disease itself happening.
But I must note and applaud when there is an improvement in the human rights situation anywhere in this world where there is such a strong trend to more authoritarianism in so many places, including in the US.
Barkley Rosser
23 comments:
This is a distressingly unfortunate analysis, taken from stereotypically prejudiced reporting. There has been no human right abuse or repression in Xinjiang and there will surely be none, as observers in Xinjiang from virtually every predominantly Muslim country have long and repeatedly found and reported.
Human rights policy in China, through the years of the Xi presidency, has meant the lifting of tens of millions of families from poverty and the securing of a healthy standard of living for hundreds of millions while working towards an environmentally sound China. Chinese development through the Xi years has been dramatic and wonderfully humane, and the Chinese people understand that.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202209/1275899.shtml
September 22, 2022
Expo in Xinjiang attracts 3,600 firms, with record high new contracts
Region sees booming trade, dwarfing US’ vicious ‘sanctions’
By Xing Xiaojing and Song Lin
Urumqi and Beijing -- The 7th China-Eurasia Expo concluded on Thursday in Urumqi, regional capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The four-day fair attracted more than 3,600 domestic and foreign companies, and it set records for new contracts signed, dwarfing the US' vicious attempt to crack down on Xinjiang industries.
With an exhibition area of 40,000 square meters and 2,100 booths, the expo attracted more than 800 companies on-site, and a total of 3,600 enterprises from 32 countries and regions participated online.
Companies showcased nearly 17,000 products covering agriculture, food, science and technology, energy and finance. At the expo, Xinjiang not only highlighted its traditional farming and animal husbandry sectors, it also used 3D and other technologies to show the development of local modern industries.
Some anti-China forces in the West have been vilifying Xinjiang for years, attempting to contain the development of industries in Xinjiang with a groundless "forced labor" lie. US President Joe Biden even signed into law the so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in December 2021, banning all imports from Xinjiang. The bill became effective on June 21.
However, international businesses are still eagerly looking for opportunities in the region. "These unwarranted 'sanctions' have had a limited impact on Xinjiang's imports and exports," said Chen Xinbo, vice director of the Commerce Bureau in Xinjiang's Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture....
Hmmm. I say that something is getting better in China and I am told basically "there was nothing bad in China that needed improving, so how dare you applaud China for having improved something."
Anonymous,
This response of yours tempts me to provide a long list of things in China that are still bad, including several that have gotten worse. But, no, I am going to resist the temptation.
But do not count on me ever to post something positive about the Peoples' Republic of China ever again. Your comments here on this are massively stupid and offensive. The UN and large numbers of people in the world have condemned China for what has been going on there. I now applaud them for stopping doing what they were doing that people were condemning, and I get this nonsense from you that pretends none of it ever happened or somehow did not matter.
Sad. Really.
Just out of curiosity, Anonymous, the building in the photo in the WaPo story that is identified as having formerly been a reeducation camp but that has now ceased being one in Kashgar, something I thought that is worthy of praise, just what is that building? Do you wish to deny that it was ever a reeducation camp? Is this story in WaPo just plain lying about this?
I doubt it.
As it is, Anonymous, I made this post for you. People, especially on another blog, are constantly criticizing PRC for this matter in Xinjiang in very strong terms. So here I publicize a story that says that what people have been repeartedly denouncing China for doing they are no longer doing. And what do you do? You give ma a hard time and simply deny that any of it ever happened.
Incredible, and the last thing I expected.
I am going to be blunt. This really pisses me off at you. I am utterly and totally disgusted. You nave never ever come close to pissing me off and disugusting me more than yoy have done right now with this just totally nauseating and disgusting posts. You should be deeply ashamed of yourself.,
No, now that I am pissed off, and I am really seriously pissed off, I shall list some thingsl and no amount of economic improvements excuse any of this.
So the story about ending reeducarion camps in Xinjiang also reported massive increases in "surveillance and intimidation." Not so good, "Anonymous." You want to try to justify that garbage? I did not mention it, but now I will, and I condemn it wholeheartedly.
China is unequivocally Number One in the world in political prisoners, and the number is rising, even as people are being released from the especially horrible reeducation camps, with me not reminding readers of just how awful these places have been, essentially concentration camps. The current count of political prisoners in China is approximately 1.4 million.
And Taiwan is far superior to PRC on every single front aside from things that require massive scale to achieve, such as having a space program. The people of China would be better off if the government in Beijing were replaced by the one in Taipei, if indeed it was the Republic of China rather than the Peoples' Republic of China with its long list of ongoing human rights abuses, with none of that going on in Taiwan, although it suffered from many abuses in the past under Chiang Kai-Shek.
Are you enjoying this, Anonymous? Look what you brought on with your unbelievably stupid and contemptible posts here. Gag! Just nauseating, some of the things going on in PRC you try to justify, just plain nauseating.
Not done piling on yet in response to this utterly stupid pair of comments here by Anonymous.
So, in today's Washington Post there was a column. It is about the forthcoming Party Congress and Xi going for his third term. A major point made in this column is that there is no nation with a higher per capita income than the PRC that is not a major oil exporter that has anywhere near the horribleness of its human rights records. Other nations, such as South Korea and Taiwan, have moved towards respecting human rights and democracy as their per capita incomes rose. But not China. Why not? Because of the totalitarian power of the Chinese Communist Party. That is why.
You asked for this Anonymous, and you are getting it. Both China and the world would be far better off if the CCP were to simply disappear tomorrow.
Here is the article in question:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/china-xinjiang-crackdown-uyghurs-surveillance/
September 23, 2022
As crackdown eases, China’s Xinjiang faces long road to rehabilitation
By Eva Dou and Cate Cadell - Washington Post
[ From the headline on, the article is no more than a recording of and a support of prejudice. ]
China is unequivocally Number One in the world in political prisoners, and the number is rising, even as people are being released from the especially horrible reeducation camps, with me not reminding readers of just how awful these places have been, essentially concentration camps. The current count of political prisoners in China is approximately 1.4 million....
[ I know that you are terribly angry with me, but this sort of writing is just making stuff up and only reflective of prejudice. Why not actually learn what China is and what China is about?
There are literally millions of Chinese and citizens of other countries who come to and travel through Xinjiang in the course of a few months, and they find nothing untoward and rather are pleased with and rewarded by their experiences in Xinjiang.
That American foreign policy, dispensing with the Nixon-Kissinger precedent and approach, has come to increasingly and methodically vilifying China is beyond unfortunate. ]
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202207/1271182.shtml
July 22, 2022
Xinjiang region sees booming tourism with more domestic, foreign visitors, a strong response to smears: regional spokesperson
By Liu Xin
The booming of tourism in China’s Xinjiang region with more domestic and Chinese tourists showed that more people are seeing through the lies and the tricks by anti-China forces from the US and the West, Xu Guixiang, spokesperson of the Xinjiang regional government, said in a press conference on Friday.
Recently, Xinjiang has become a hot tourist destination. In June, the region marked 23 million trips, an increase of 66 percent from May, and tourism revenue reached 17.4 billion yuan ($ 2.5 billion), an increase of 89 percent from the previous month, according to data released on Friday....
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-09-01/Xinjiang-s-happy-ethnic-groups-are-the-best-response-to-lies-1cYECzqBPYk/index.html
September 1, 2022
Xinjiang's happy ethnic groups are the best response to lies
By Qiao Basheng
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-09-02/Graphics-Facts-about-Xinjiang-s-population-and-ethnic-groups-1cvVZvrnuI8/index.html
September 2, 2022
Graphics: Facts about Xinjiang's population and ethnic groups
https://english.news.cn/20221008/0dc651b903a14b3a9fdccd2401b98181/c.html
October 8, 2022
U.S.-led attempts to use Xinjiang to contain China a gravest violation of human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang
Today is the 12th anniversary of my late mother's death at age 97. I learned from her at an early age about Chinese art and culture and civilization, regarding which she was very well informed, knowing several of the world's leading experts on these mattes. She was one of the founders of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society. As a result I have long had a deep respect as well as knowledge of Chinese culture and civilization, and I from time to time note that China has eliminated deep poverty and is making various other positive advances, while keeping an eye on things not going so well as well.
So I put up a post saying something positive about China, noting an improvement regarding a matter for which China has been sharply and strongly criticized , in recent years, probably more so than on any other matter recently, most recently by the UN itself officially. I thought I was making a point in China's favor, noting that it is overcoming a matter for which it has been so sharply criticized.
Instead I am told I should not be mentioning this matter at all, shame on me. What "reeducation camps"? How dare I mention them? Or maybe they were just "schools" or places where people "learned improved labor and social skills" or if maybe it is admitted they have existed (and apparently not quite gone yet, although the big news is nobody is being put in them anymore, a good thing), well, they probably were awful terrorists who needed some "reeducation." Harrumph!
Oh, and my late mother also played string quartets with Albert Einstein. Yes, she was plenty formidable.
Your post was fine....the Chinese must have folks dedicated to combating any negativity or acknowledgement of improvements which indicate that there was something wrong in the first place. Now remind us of the story of Einstein as a violinist not being a greater counter and not keeping time 'relative' to others in your mother's string ensemble?
Yes, he could only count to 4, not to 18, which he joked about.
Anonynous, you know that I generally have a lot of respect for you. But on this matter, I think you should have just remained silent. Everybody accepts what the UN says, and you trying to deny it just brings more attention to it and makes you look not at all credible. You normally do much better than this.
Everybody accepts what the UN says...
[ This is of course false. The bulk of the world formally rejects what American- and British-led "Western" nations have suggested. The rejection has been made in votes several times over. The latest rejection was in this session. This is simply part of an American- and British-led effort to ruin China, an effort that has failed and will continue to fail as America persists. ]
...trying to deny it just brings more attention to it...
[ This is of course false and morally offensive. China honors and supports human rights and makes that repeatedly clear and will continue to do so. China supports human rights... ]
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202210/1276729.shtml
October 9, 2022
Global Development Initiative a constructive approach toward building a cooperative system: Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs (Sachs), director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Global Times (GT) reporter Yu Jincui that the Global Development Initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a powerful call for cooperation and is very helpful for building an open international cooperative system.
GT: You have visited China many times. How do you comment on China's development in the past 10 years? What impressed you most and why?
Sachs: I've seen China change since my first visit in 1981. This has been more than 40 years, and China's continuing progress is absolutely remarkable. China went from a country that was filled with poverty to a remarkably prosperous country. And I always so much have benefited from seeing this remarkable progress and also learning from how China succeeded, because the lessons from China are very relevant for other regions of the world, such as Africa today which is still witnessing great poverty, but also has tremendous potential based on the kinds of strategies that China used....
This is what the effort to defame China repeatedly comes to, and silence in turn, when a response if possible, is morally unacceptable:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/opinion/china-politics-xi.html
October 10, 2022
Xi Jinping Is a Captive of the Communist Party Too
By Kerry Brown
To Western eyes, President Xi Jinping of China may appear as the embodiment of tyrannical one-man rule, and for good reason.
Kerry Brown is director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/china-xinjiang-crackdown-uyghurs-surveillance/
September 23, 2022
As crackdown eases, China’s Xinjiang faces long road to rehabilitation
By Eva Dou and Cate Cadell - Washington Post
[ The article is filled with falseness, and is morally offensive. China and Xinjiang need no "rehabilitation." More than a billion people, part of a 5,000 year-old civilization that honors the array of ethnicities that comprise the civilization, need no "rehabilitation." ]
Notice the racist policy that is being fostered by the British government:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/11/uk-to-designate-china-a-threat-in-hawkish-foreign-policy-shift
October 11, 2022
UK to designate China a ‘threat’ in hawkish foreign policy shift
Redesignation will bring UK’s official position towards Beijing close to its stance on Russia
By Dan Sabbagh - Guardian
China is to be formally designated a “threat” to Britain in a hasty rewrite of Boris Johnson’s defence and foreign policy that is being brought forward to end confusion among ministers about how to deal with Beijing.
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