The shifts in ethnic policy go well beyond Xinjiang. This is fundamental rethink of how the CCP manages ethnocultural diversity and its colonial possessions.
The boycott movement marks a blurred line between genuine anger and manufactured outrage.
By
April 29, 2021
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Over the past month, a widespread online and offline campaign in China has emerged to support the production of cotton in Xinjiang and denounce international clothing brands that pledged to eschew its use over forced labor concerns. At first glance, the effort – complete with viral hashtags and celebrity support – may look like grassroots support for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to hit back at criticism of its human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. And yet, even as some participation in the campaign is inevitably organic, its media dimensions point to strong party-state backing.
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Harrowing reports of the treatment of Uyghurs held in China’s internment camps in Xinjiang continue to surface. As more information has emerged over the past several years, states, particularly in the West, have publicly condemned Beijing’s actions, with some kickstarting a panoply of initiatives intended to hold Chinese authorities accountable.
Most recently, Canada’s House of Commons overwhelmingly voted to declare China’s treatment of the Muslim minority – including forced detention in camps and forced sterilizations – as genocide. The motion passed 266 to 0 with the support of all opposition parties. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the majority of his cabinet members abstained, the vote was symbolically significant. It makes Canada the second country after the United States to label China’s actions as genocide.
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Names in this story have been changed to protect people in this article from retribution.
At a popular Uyghur restaurant in Istanbul’s bustling Zeytinburnu district, Kerim, a young man from Urumqi, serves customers generous plates of shish kebabs, laghman noodles, and pilaf rice. He points to a sign in the window of the traditional noodle house which says in Chinese, English, and Turkish: “Chinese do not enter.” The shopkeepers put up the sign after numerous unknown people repeatedly came in to watch them, take photos of them, and intimidate them.
“People keep disappearing here, so we can’t relax,” he says.