"Genocide Games": Deconstructing "Forced Labor in Xinjiang" Discourse During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
Draft Version Foreword
FULL PAPER IS TEMPORARILY AVAILABLE ON ACADEMIA.EDU HERE
At time of final revision / proofing of the work “Genocide Games” linked above, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to visit Xinjiang [XUAR] from 2022/05/23 to 2022/05/28, the first trip by a UN official in such capacity since 2005. In advance of this visit, pro-US Western media, supported by the Uygur diaspora (responsible for what this work delineates as a US State Department condoned, deliberately confirmation biased narrative of “forced labor in Xinjiang” as methodological “genocide”) are already seeking to discredit and distance themselves from the results of Bachelet’s visit or any reports which may subsequently emerge (Bloomberg, 2022: CNA, 2022).
So too, “human rights” NGOs led by Human Rights Watch [HRW], have stated that Bachelet’s credibility is at stake, implying that should she reveal anything counter to the official US State Department narrative on “human rights abuses” that such would simply not be accurate (HRW, 2022), although HRW’s biased misrepresentation of “human rights” rhetoric in XUAR was recently exposed by James (2022 [ii]). Likewise, the Uygur diaspora have duly been re-tweeting links to such pre-emptive attempts to discredit any Bachelet report contrary to this narrative, a behavioural pattern that led at least one author (with previous XUAR experience1) to suggest that a Western mainstream media [MSM] campaign to discredit Bachelet was being narratively formulated in the lead-up to her visit (Grey, 2022 [ii]). Significantly, Grey - who has been outspoken against the “genocide” narrative - specifically referenced the objection to Bachelet’s visit by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China [IPAC] (Wintour & Ni, 2022), also noting that during the initial negotiation of Bachelet’s visit, the US resigned from the relevant UN Human Rights Council, inherently distancing themselves from any subsequent findings of such (as well as exempting themselves from investigation into authentic human rights violations in, for one instance among many, Yemen) (Grey, 2022 [ii]).
Although Grey (2022 [ii]) does not elaborate on why IPAC would have such a vested interest in the outcome of Bachelet’s visit, IPAC’s current submission to World Bank CEO Dr. David Malpass, IPAC (2022) as supported by Murphy, et.al (2022) - launched in conjunction with George Soros’ Open Society Foundation [OSF], the US National Endowment for Democracy [NED] and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy during a coordinated and deliberate anti-China media propaganda campaign surrounding the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics - is essentially a justification for economic warfare on China hinging on the cessation of IMF support for vital BRI infrastructure in XUAR on the basis of the Uygur diaspora’s “forced labor in Xinjiang” as methodologizing “genocide” narrative. Should anything contrary to this narrative emerge, or prove US State Department and Uygur collusion and disinformation in relation to such, the US’ entire “financial decoupling” from China agenda would be discredited and exposed; and it would lose all validity for the platform it has advanced for economic warfare on China. This is so enormous a stake that the US can simply not afford to have any Bachelet report in XUAR that may question the “forced labor in Xinjiang” as “genocide” narrative or risk invalidating it. In this context, pre-emptively dismissing Bachelet’s visit regardless - by attempting to call any findings into doubt before they have even been reached - is the consequent US State Department and Uygur diaspora strategy: to protect the facade of their credibility. And it is indeed a facade, a long-germinating strategy to sabotage China’s economic rise that dates back at least to the US State Department’s 1997 formulation of the Silk Road Strategy [SRS] to foment unrest in XUAR specifically to destabilize China (Bandeira, 2017), augmented by Uygur “human rights lawyer” Nury Turkel’s appointment to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom [USCIRF].
Into this consideration, however, must be incorporated the development, following the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on 2022/02/24 after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, of a concerted US campaign to police and officiate all MSM discourse on the basis of so-called “disinformation”. This was inherent in the establishment on 2022/04/27 within the US Department of Homeland Security of the Disinformation Governance Board, the future of which is at time of writing uncertain after the reported resignation of its initially sanctioned head Nina Jankowicz and its official “pause”, attributed by Lorenz (2022) to the influence of right-wing political pressure and social media assertions of it being tantamount to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth”. As Bachelet’s scheduled visit thus occurs in a climate of US political enforcement of its State Department narrative (on both China over XUAR and Russia over the Ukraine military operation) and “disinformation” management, any contribution which runs counter to or seeks to expose this pro-US narrative risks being itself suppressed and/or censored, as has been the case on social media Twitter, for example, since it teamed with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute [ASPI] for “security” purposes to police pro-China accounts on grounds of being “sponsored by Beijing”. Of course, ASPI in collaboration with the NED (co-sponsor of IPAC (2022)) also co-sponsor and co-develop the Xinjiang Database Project in conjunction with USCIRF co-chair Turkel, whose Uygur separatist, extremist and terrorist-apologia deliberately sought to shape Western MSM discourse on XUAR during the Beijing Winter Olympics in favour of the narrative now potentially to be exposed and subverted in any Bachelet report on XUAR contrary to the HRW perspective and Turkel’s historically / historiographically revisionist biases. Consequently, whatever may result from Bachelet’s visit, deconstructing this discourse and its politicized “disinformation” context is a necessary task, the commencement of which is hence undertaken within the “Genocide Games” work linked below.
FULL PAPER IS TEMPORARILY AVAILABLE ON ACADEMIA.EDU HERE
REFERENCES
Bandeira, A.M., (2017). 6. The Xinjiang Issue and Washington’s China Strategy. in The Second Cold War. Springer International Publishing. retreived on 2022/05/13 from https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/the-xinjiang-issue-and-washington-s-china-strategy/12324556
Bloomberg (2022). UN Rights Chief to Proceed With Rare Trip to China Next Week. Bloomberg.com. retrieved on 2022/05/21 from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-18/un-rights-chief-to-proceed-with-rare-trip-to-china-next-week
CNA (2022). US slams China, UN rights chief, ahead of Xinjiang visit. Channel News Asia. retrieved on 2022/05/21 from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-slams-china-un-rights-chief-michelle-bachelet-xinjiang-visit-2697101
Grey, J. (2022 [ii]). UN High Commissioner visits Xinjiang: will Michele Bachelet’s reputation survive the trip? YouTube.com (Jerry’s Take on China). retrieved on 2022/05/21 from (see video above)
HRW (2022). UN: Rights Chief’s Credibility at Stake in China Visit. Human Rights Watch. retrieved on 2022/05/21 from https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/20/un-rights-chiefs-credibility-stake-china-visit
IPAC (2022). International lawmakers pile pressure on World Bank as investments in Uyghur forced labour exposed. IPAC Global. retrieved on 2022/03/28 from https://ipac.global/international-lawmakers-pile-pressure-on-world-bank-as-investments-in-uyghur-forced-labour-exposed/
James, J. (2022 [ii]). Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch’s Forced Xinjiang Labour Claims: Junk Research or Noble Cause Corruption?. Co-West-Pro. retrieved on 2022/05/16 from http://www.cowestpro.co/uploads/1/9/9/7/19974045/cowestpro_2-2022_.pdf
Lorenz, T. (2022). How the Biden administration let right-wing attacks derail its disinformation efforts. Washington Post. retrieved on 2022/05/21 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/18/disinformation-board-dhs-nina-jankowicz/
Murphy, LT. et.al (2022). Financing & genocide: Development finance and the crisis in the Uyghur Region. Atlantic Council. retrieved on 2022/03/28 from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/financing-and-genocide/
Wintour, P. & Ni, V. (2022). UN human rights commissioner criticised over planned Xinjiang visit. The Guardian. retrieved on 2022/05/23 from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/20/un-human-rights-commissioner-xinjiang-michelle-bachelet-criticised?CMP=share_btn_tw
As a note: I also have Xinjiang experience, having lived and worked there for a year in 2011-12 as an EFL teacher, teaching Han, Uygur and Kazakh students in accordance with Ministry of Education and local educational institution stakeholder requirements.