AngloSaxon hypocrisy – The French have just put forth a plan for de-radicatlization and to prevent separatism with Muslim minorities in France. 盎格魯撒克遜人(白人)的偽善 Professor Kiji Noh in San Francisco: It entails re-engineering and intervening in education, funding, indoctrination, for example 舊金山的Kiji Noh教授：法國人剛剛提出了一項消除穆斯林文化的計劃，並防止與法國的穆斯林少數群體分離。 例如，穆斯林需要對教育，資金，灌輸進行重新設計和洗腦如下: https://apnews.com/article/religion-paris-france-emmanuel-macron-islam-40615a00b39123ff8bcbd5ce705b88f5
Forcing attendance from 3 yrs onwards at French-only schools 從3年起強制在法語學校上課
Surveillance and control of funding of mosques and Islamic organizations 監督和控制清真寺和伊斯蘭組織的資金
Banning imams from other countries to enter France 禁止其他國家帶領清真寺祈禱的人進入法國
Installing an “anti-putsch” system (whatever that means) to monitor Muslim in France安裝“防偽”系統監視法國的穆斯林(你用你的想像力吧）
Intervening in certain cultural practices around marriage 介入婚姻中的某些文化習俗
If China were doing this, esp “French only schools”, the West would be screaming “cultural genocide”! 如果中國這樣做，特別是“僅法國的學校”，西方就會大喊“文化大屠殺”！
But it’s even more hypocritical than that. Starting 1994 and codified in 2004, the French banned the hijab/headscarf at all schools and government employment. Since 2011, it is also illegal to wear any face covering or veil in any public spaces, punishable by a fine and re-education.
If someone imposes a face covering on another, 1-2 yrs in prison and a fine of $30-60,000. [The only exception to a face covering veil is 1) travelling in a private car or 2) in a place of worship. 但是，比這還要虛偽。 從1994年開始，到2004年編纂，法國人在所有學校和政府機構中都禁止戴頭巾/頭巾。 自2011年以來，在任何公共場所佩戴任何面部遮蓋物或面紗都是違法的，應處以罰款和再教育。
Repression of muslims, and cultural genocide, no? 鎮壓穆斯林和種族滅絕，不是嗎？
Can you say hypocrisie？你能說偽善嗎？
The same group of Uyghurs, when they are in Afghanistan, US called terrorists, but when they are in Xinjiang, US called freedom fighters. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-targets-chinese-uighur-militants-well-taliban-fighters-afghanistan-n845876 同一群維吾爾人在阿富汗時美國稱他们為恐怖分子，在新疆時美國稱他们爲自由戰士。
Professor Kiji Noh of San Francisco: Johnson, the fact is the Han Chinese were established in Xinjiang long before the Turkik Uighurs came into the region. Also these Uighurs were later converted to Islam, so your colleague Charlie is mistaken twice over–he has his facts very wrong.
Were there other tribes that preceded the Han in that region? Of course. And now they are all part of China and Chinese civilization and belong to individual ethnic groups with legal standing in the PRC. Note, many are non-Muslim. Uighurs do not have a monopoly over Xinjiang; other ethnic groups preceded them–and still live with them, and they have no interest in being part of a fundamentalist Shariah-ruled Islamic state.
It’s a small minority of separatist Salafist radicals that have been weaponized by the US, that China is trying to deal with, and clearly in a more respectful and culturally sensitive manner than France, and certainly more humanely than the US.
Professor Kenneth Hammond: The situation in Xinjiang is very multi-layered. There was a Uighur empire there 1000 years ago, which was overrun and destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. Uighur, Kazakh, Kirgiz & other Turkic speaking ethnic communities existed, along with the then-dominant Uzbeks, in Central Asia for many centuries. Some adopted Islam. Some remained Buddhist. Some followed traditional Mongol sky worship (Tengri).
The Manchus conquered China in the mid-17th century. They built a multi-ethnic state, with strong links to the Mongols. In the 1750s-70s they destroyed the Dzunghar state in what is now Xinjiang. The Dzunghars were speakers of a Mongol dialect, but followers of Tibetan Buddhism. The Manchu Qing dynasty, with some help from expanding Czarist Russian forces, defeated the Dzunghars, then systematically eliminated them as an ethnic population, dispersing families and individuals to other parts of China and erasing Dzunghar as a recognized entity.
The Uighers then moved into the political space which had been emptied by the destruction of the Dzunghars. Some Uighurs identified with Central Asian Islamic traditions. Others were happy to integrate with the Qing empire. In the 19th century, in the context of rising anti-modernist schools within the Islamic world, some Uighurs elements sought to create an Islamic state, East Turkistan, but these efforts were suppressed by Qing forces. After the collapse of the imperial order in 1912, Xinjiang drifted on its own for decades. The Bolshevik Revolution led to attempts to incorporate Xinjiang into Soviet Central Asia, but this did not succeed. In the 1930s there was another attempt to create a Republic of East Turkistan, but this too collapsed because it was not broadly supported by the mass of the population.
After Liberation in 1949 Xinjiang was part of the PRC. There was a high degree of local autonomy, in part because of a Chinese strongman, Wang Enmao. Wang was purged during the Cultural Revolution, and Xinjiang began to be more fully integrated into the PRC. Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kirgiz, and others, including the Iranian speaking Tajiks, all came to have autonomous territories, with local language education and the protection of traditional cultural practices.
This remained the basic situation, with Xinjiang more or less marginal to the PRC, until the 21st century got underway. Then a combination of small separatist movements, affiliated with the broader Islamic fundamentalism of the era, and new economic initiatives based on new energy developments, either oil & gas or solar, began to transform the dynamic in Xinjiang. The present situation sees the PRC trying to bring the Turkic and Iranian speaking population into the main current of economic development, so that local people can have jobs and a significant place in the life of the region, while trying to preserve as much autonomy and tradition as possible.
Compared to American treatment of indigenous peoples, this is a remarkable effort of inclusion and cultural respect. This is obviously anathema to the dominant political powers in the US and Europe, who can only project on to the Chinese their own experiences of cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing. From New Mexico to Hawaii to Alaska and the rest of America, we live on stolen land in a wasteland of human destruction and dispossession. Just some thoughts.
Alvin Ja in San Francisco: It’s important that opinions and conclusions be based on facts and evidence, as opposed to simplistic talking points based on faulty “knowledge.”
Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) just published a piece about how China suppresses free speech among Chinese foreign students enrolled at American colleges. The piece was entitled “Instruction Under Surveillance: Chinese students stuck overseas bring censorship concerns into newly global online classrooms.”
This was my response to the piece which has some bearing on how you see China and Xinjiang:
CHE: Karin Fischer’s piece “Instruction Under Surveillance” https://www.chronicle.com/article/instruction-under-surveillance is not based on fact.
Instead, it is fear-mongering based on the inaccurate American/European stereotype of an oppressive and authoritarian China. People in the Western world ardently believe this stereotype to be true. Yet this firmly-believed stereotype is not corroborated by the lived experience of the vast majority of the people in China. A recent Harvard Ash Center survey showed a 95.5% satisfaction rate (cf. recent Harvard Ash Center Survey https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ )
Contrary to Western stereotype, in real life, people in China have lots of freedom to express dissatisfaction with the government.
Karin Fischer’s piece actually reverses the real-life source of surveillance and suppression of Chinese students. If you’re paying any attention at all, it’s the State Dept and Dept of Justice that has been targeting Chinese students and academics in a manner reminiscent of the McCarthy Red Scare era.
Both foreign students from China as well as Chinese-Americans are being targeted. On 9/24/2020 FBI Director Christopher Wray boasted to the Senate Homeland Security Committee: “The FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case approximately every ten hours.”
Chinese students are being targeted, not by China, but by American authorities!
Regarding the Perry Link reference to “Anaconda in the Chandelier”: Perry Link himself is a big contributor to the atmosphere of American self-censorship wherein it is de rigueur to portray China negatively; yet, on the other hand, positive takes on China are less than socially acceptable in mainstream discourse.
The ability to Manufacture Consent against China is unparalleled. How many people will have the integrity and fortitude to oppose a resurgent Yellow Peril narrative?
If an objective and blind survey were to be performed right now, I would wager that most students from China would be much more fearful of American authorities than the Chinese government.
Professor Kenneth Hammond: I totally agree with Alvin Ja’s analysis here. Chinese students who I have had in classes on Asian and Chinese history have expressed a wide range of opinions, but are generally united in their support for their own government. They don’t see it as perfect or flawless, but they trust that the leadership is trying to find workable solutions to serous challenges. Meanwhile the State Department is putting ever more pressure on Americans, from university endowment managers to state legislators and now even members of local PTAs to toe the line on China and get in lockstep with the Trump agenda. Naturally Chinese students and scholars feel intimidated and monitored by this powerful apparatus of state surveillance by the American government.
Johnson Choi Biz 