Truth vs Fiction

Beijing has long history of spread disinformation and propaganda to achieve its China dream and to justify its colonialism. It continues to disseminate lies to hide its genocide in East Turkistan. Below, you will find a sample of the many lies by the Chinese government about its Genocide and colonial history, along with the truth. You can limit the spread of disinformation by knowing how to identify it and being critical about what you read.

Source: CETNI             Credit to Berkalp Birlik

The facts about China’s Genocide: 

Number of detainees for re-education camps: According to international researchers and U.S.  government officials [PDF]; Xinjiang Police Files 

• The Chinese government has arbitrarily detained 1-3 million Uyghur and other  Turkic People in East Turkistan. Arbitrary detention for re-education camps and  transferring detainees from re-education camps to long term imprisonment is  ongoing. Even some of them have been released from re-education camps  since 2019, those released detainees are subjected to intense surveillance,  force labour and religious and cultural identity denounce along with those had not detained Uyghur population.  

Number of detention facilities and camps: Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) identified [PDF] : 

• More than 385 suspected detention facilities using satellite images in 2020.  

Inhuman treatment and torture methods: The UN human rights office report [PDF] released:  

• Based on interviews with dozens of people in 2022, including twenty-six  individuals who were detained, that found “patterns of torture or  other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” in the camps. Dozens of camps survivors also testified inhuman torture in Chinese re education camps and prisons. According to camp survivors testimony torture  methods includes stabbing, electric shock, tiger chair, sleep, food and water  deprivation, rape and humiliation.  

Forcibly removing Uyghur children: Center for East Turkistan National Interest, July 2024  { PDF}  

• 900,000 Uyghur children removed from their home for orphanage camps and  boarding schools. These kids were locked in prison style orphanage camps based  on China’s “cut the roots”, “break the lineage,” “break the origin” policies after  their parents were detained. 

Forced Labour: 

• The PRC subjects Uyghurs to forced labor became large scale since 2014. Between 2016 and 2020, coercively transferred 2.87 million Uyghur workers per year to inland China. In 2021, transferred 3.2 million surplus laborers and continuously increasing scale of forced labour year by year. (Jamestown Foundation, June 5, 2022) Hundreds of videos posted by brave Uyghur workers on Chinese social media reveal the  harsh, slave-like working conditions they endure. Most of these videos feature young  Uyghur women who have been separated from their babies and toddlers, sent to  Chinese cities, and confined to factories where they work for little or no pay. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya  Obokata, based on an independent assessment of available information concluded in a  report that ‘forced labour’ has taken place in Xinjiang. (The report, dated July 19, is  publicly available in a UN documents library.) 

Dr. Adrian Zenz analyze based on Chinese government data: ( forced sterilization [PDF]) 

• Uyghur Women Sterilized and the natural population growth rates of Uyghur  Population drastically declined. Uyghur population growth rates fell by 84 percent in  the two largest Uyghur prefectures between 2015 and 2018, and declined further in  several minority regions in 2019. For 2020, one Uyghur region set an unprecedented  near-zero birth rate target: a mere 1.05 per mille, compared to 19.66 per mille in 2018.  This was intended to be achieved through China’s “family planning work.” 

Mosques had been destroyed: Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report based on  satellite imagery document 

• Around 16,000 mosques had been destroyed or damaged as a consequence of China’s cultural destruction as a part of China’s cultural genocide against the Uyghurs.

China is erasing the existence of the Uyghurs: China’s Genocide Tourism Strategy 

The Chinese government has deliberately destroyed Uyghur culture and historical sites, invented several fabricated Uyghur “heritage” locations to suggest that Uyghurs once live there.  These sites are promoted as tourist attractions to give the illusion that Uyghur culture is  preserved, but they serve as propaganda tools to rewrite history. In fact, this highlights the  success of China’s genocide, as Uyghur culture and identity have been erased, leaving only  remnants in museums. 

Lies about China’s Genocide: 

• First China denied existence of re-education camps and detention of millions of  Uyghurs and other Turks, in late 2018, they started acknowledging that there were  “vocational education and training centers.” In late 2019, the Chinese government  said detained in the re-education camps had “graduated.” They have lied camps were closed by transferring large scale of Uyghur detainees to prisons and labeling  them as criminals.  
• The Chinese government denied prison style camps and depicted that those are  vocational training facilities and schools that teach Chinese language and Chinese  laws to cure people who infected with Islamic religion. (Ambassador Zhou Pingjian:  Vocational Education in Xinjiang A Good Experience in Countering Extremism, August, 2019) 
• The Chinese government created distributed in PRC based platforms videos of  Uyghurs seeming to deny torture and abuse in the camps and claiming they were  dancing and studying. There are also videos posted random Uyghur prisoner that  confessing their crime and admitting that how he became terrorist. These videos  later posted on you tube. 
• The Chinese government depicted forcibly removing children from their home and  depicted that these children were orphanage and placed to orphanage camps to  get good care. China’s foreign minister Wangyi said, “The so-called ‘genocide’ in  Xinjiang is ridiculously absurd. It is a rumour with ulterior motives and a complete lie,”.  Chinese government strictly hide information about those children. There were no  statistics released about physical and mental wellbeing of these children and  journalists are not allowed to visit these children camps. 
• The Chinese government denied population decline of Uyghurs and distributed videos  of testimony of several Uyghur women denying the coerced sterilization policy. We  believe that these Uyghur women are forced to give false testimony as they live under  the strict control of Chinese colonization.  
• The Chinese government denied forced labour, stated that they are placing Uyghur  population for employment with paid jobs ( Embassy of the PRC spokes person in the  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland said, “For quite some time now, certain elements in the world, out of their ideological bias and anti-China agenda, have been fabricating and spreading false narratives about so-called ‘forced labour’ in Xinjiang, and gone to great lengths to smear Xinjiang’s effort to ensure employment security.” March 1, 2024)
• The Chinese government denied destroying mosques, Uyghur culture, language and  religion despite mounted of evidences.  

Disinformation of China’s Colonialism: 

• East Turkistan is inseparable part of China 
• East Turkistan was formally incorporated into China since Han dynasty 
• The East Turkistan was never been a nation state, the name “East Turkistan”  is not exist. The name of the region is “Xinjiang”  
• Xinjiang was peacefully liberated by People’s Republic of China in 1949  
• Uyghurs are not indigenous to East Turkistan, they move into from Mongolia  in 840s.
• Uyghurs are happy minority of 56 ethnic minority of China 
• A system of regional ethnic autonomy is in place and Xinjiang practices regional autonomy (The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, July 2021.  Full text: Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang) 

The Facts About China’s Colonialism in East Turkistan  

• East Turkistan never had been part of China until Chinese Communist state PRC  established in 1949. Manchu Qing empire’s invasion of East Turkistan took  place in 1750s short period, then again in 1877. However, Manchu invaded  China in 1644, hundred years before than their invasion in East Turkistan.  They seized Beijing, which was capital city of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, and  referred to the Ming dynasty’s territory as “China” and Han people in this  territory as “Chinese”. Even though Manchu rulers interchangeably used  “Manchu” or “Qing” mean to China, however, territory of Manchu was not  solely belong to Han Chinese people, only Ming territory was home of Han  Chinese people. 
• East Turkistan was not formally incorporated into China in Chinese Han dynasty ( 202BCE-9CE). Han dynasty only captured the Turpan area, a small part of vast  region of East Turkistan for short period.  
• The Manchu invasion of East Turkistan in 1877 was not the colonization of stateless  land but the invasion of Kashgaria state. This state was recognized by Ottomans  and British. After the invasion, Manchu Empire changed the name of the  region to ‘’Xinjiang” which means colony in Manchu dictionary. East Turkistan republic established twice in 1933 and 1944, latest East Turkistan  republic established five years before the People’s Republic of China’s invasion.  

• “Peaceful liberation of East Turkistan” is total lie of the Chinese government: 

If East Turkistan was truly peacefully liberated, why did China impose military control and  establish the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in East Turkistan as a major strategic armed force between 1955 and 1966?” 

(In fact, Chinese general Wang Zhen invaded East Turkistan with 70,000 troops and 170,500 more Han Chinese solders entered soon after as part of  XPCC.)  

Second, The people of East Turkistan had already liberated most of East Turkistan from Chinese  warlords following the collapse of the Manchu empire and established the East Turkistan  Republic.

Third, Chinese nationalist warlords, who were defeated in most parts of East Turkistan by the  East Turkistan Republic’s army, peacefully surrendered to the People’s Republic of China during  the PRC’s invasion of the region. However, this does not signify a peaceful liberation of East  Turkistan by the PRC, as the national defense forces of the East Turkistan Republic firmly  refused to surrender. 

Fourth, Backed by Stalin, the PRC collaborated with these Chinese nationalist warlords to carry  out an armed invasion, resulting in the deaths of 150,000 resistance fighters, primarily  members of the national defense forces of the East Turkistan Republic. (This statistics  announced by Urumchi Raido in 1952, stated that the PRC successfully eradicate rebellious  groups)  

• Uyghurs and other Turkic people in East Turkistan are illegally occupied nation, not identify  themselves as “Indigenous Peoples” in UN category. However, they are indigenous to the land of  East Turkistan. Modern Uyghurs were formed by admixture of many early indigenous  inhabitants in East Turkistan, including early Saka, Tokharian, Huns, Sogdians, Turkic,  and Mongols as historical records indicated. China’s claim that modern-day Uyghurs are  not indigenous to East Turkistan is unfounded as they reject Uyghurs’ ethnic formation  and historical roots in the region.