Two documents about the same Chinese province – Xinjiang – appeared in China itself and the United States
Let’s start with the American document. A department of the State Department released a report savagely berating the Chinese authorities for an information campaign trying to “dominate the global discourse” on Xinjiang.
This, apparently, translates into Russian as “we are being beaten”: the world should have believed American propaganda about the situation in this province, but for some reason it turns out differently.
And if so, then we are not faced with a private and local problem. If Washington propaganda honestly signs for its inability to impose on the whole world a point of view that should be the only correct one everywhere, then we have at least a good subject for study. How did they manage to do this, these Chinese?
The fact that it is actually about the internal situation in China does not matter. American propaganda was supposed to set the tone for any occasion, anywhere in the world. Yes, in particular, about what was happening inside Ukraine (that is, in the Donbass), about the Amazon forests, and about everything in general. The current Ukrainian crisis, perhaps, would not have happened if someone in the United States had not considered that they would definitely win the information war.
And here is one of the conclusions of the American failure regarding Xinjiang: they fail when the original problem really affects many countries and peoples, and they begin to check for themselves who says what and what the situation really is. The fact is that for years Xinjiang has rhymed with international Islamic terrorism, and, we repeat, it affects many, especially given the failed experience of the West in fighting it (Iraq, Afghanistan and not only). And this is what many people want to understand: how to make sure that a terrorist threat does not come from this or that territory?
Already quite distant 2014, probably, was the peak of such a threat emanating from Xinjiang with its Muslim national minority – the Uighurs, who were then almost completely crushed by the jihadist underground. That is, Xinjiang was Chinese Chechnya after the Khasavyurt agreements. Although for the most part terror was limited to Xinjiang itself. But then he went beyond these limits: for example, on March 1, 2014, a group of Uighur suicide bombers in black landed on the crowded square of the main railway station in Kunming (this is Yunnan province – a three-hour flight from Xinjiang) and began to cut everyone around with knives that were centimeters long. 70. Almost instantly 29 people were killed.
Then there was a long special operation to clean Xinjiang from terrorists. As a result of which, in fact, Westerners are still trying to portray this province as a continuous concentration camp for the Uyghurs – with total forced labor and other horrors. There are no interruptions in the supply of horrors, because the main jihadists moved to the same West, became human rights activists there and supply any kind of disinformation.
But besides the purge, there was much more going on in Xinjiang. Namely: the concentration of the maximum efforts of the Chinese government and society to turn the province into a center of prosperity and development. And here we have the second of the two documents that we started talking about: the report of the provincial government on the results of development for ten years.
Now there will be many numbers, but good ones. During the specified period, the province’s GDP doubled. Nearly five million jobs have been created. About 3.06 million people have been lifted out of poverty – thanks to which poverty in Xinjiang has been officially defeated. It has 24 civilian airports, more than any other province. The number of enterprises, private and public, doubled to 2.21 million. And, most importantly, the “security index” has grown – up to 99.13 percent of those surveyed. True, ten years ago it was not bad – 87.58 percent, but that was before the peak of terror in 2014.
It is clear that the State Department and others are simply forced to declare: all of the above is a lie, propaganda and provocation. But here the peculiarities of the situation with Xinjiang begin.
Do not exaggerate the possibilities of Chinese foreign propaganda – even in English. Compared to the Western “empire of lies”, this is still not so much. But the news from Xinjiang has a target audience – these are primarily Muslim countries, but not only them. Therefore, in recent years, literally hundreds of delegations from abroad have visited Xinjiang. So, two days ago, a group of diplomats from among those accredited to the UN unit in Geneva was received in Urumqi – where, among other things, the Human Rights Council meets. At the same time, diplomats – almost all – were from Asia and Africa. Westerners who did not want to “be exposed to propaganda” were not once again begged.
Judging by the reports of this trip, the diplomats were interested in mosques, imams and graduates of famous re-education schools for young jihadists who had not committed serious crimes. Today he and everyone finished carrying out their mitigated punishment, and the ambassadors asked them where they worked and how they felt.
One of the most obvious results of these incessant visits to the region is that it has become perhaps the most open province in China to the outside world. The same ten-year development outcome document mentions that Xinjiang has partnerships with 176 “countries and regions” of the world out of almost two hundred existing states. Of course, the connections are different – from a one-time supply of tomato sauce to a multibillion-dollar contract for solar panels, but the figure is still good. And one more thing: the once remote northwestern corner of the country has become a world transport center, dozens of routes for the delivery of goods to Europe and Central Asia go through it.
All or most of these facts are verifiable through independent channels (including the incessant sending of delegations), so it is difficult to talk about dirty and black propaganda here. The Muslim countries of the world would not allow offending brothers in faith and would somehow react to insults. So here the question arises: if the United States calls Xinjiang one big concentration camp, does it mean that the concentration camp atmosphere contributes to the prosperity of the whole region and serves as a good tool for curing terrorism? This is news in economics and political science. Well, or terrorism within society must be fought exactly as China did – and as many others failed to do.
Dmitry Kosyrev, RIA
Due to censorship and blocking of all media and alternative views, stay tuned to our Telegram channel