BEIJING (Reuters) – At a crowded press conference in Beijing on Friday, Chinese officials broadcast a video of a thin Uighur man with a shaved head, dressed in a large uniform and speaking directly to the camera.
“I will do my best to change myself and receive clemency from the party and the government,” said the man, Erkin Tursun, a former television producer who, according to officials, is serving a 20-year sentence in Xinjiang on charges of ” Inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination and covering up crimes. “
Tursun, almost unrecognizable by the photos shared online before his 2018 arrest, addresses his son, who now lives abroad and has publicly defended the arrest of Tursun, which he says is arbitrary.
It was one of more than half a dozen segments showing Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority in the western region, begging relatives abroad to return home and stop speaking out against China and the ruling Communist Party.
These press conferences have become a staple of expanding Beijing’s campaign to defend its Xinjiang policies amid Western criticism, including U.S. sanctions and accusations of genocide, as Beijing prepares for to celebrate the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.
For months, China has backtracked increasingly against global criticism of its Xinjiang policies, including explicit attacks on women who have claimed abuse.
Last month, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights violations in Xinjiang. China retaliated with its own sanctions.
Some big Western brands like H&M, facing boycotts in China over their earlier statements about Xinjiang, are struggling to strike a balance between consumers in the world’s second-largest economy and public opinion at home.
Beijing’s propaganda campaign, which has included 11 news reports in the capital since December, has repeatedly included efforts to discredit overseas Uyghurs speaking to the media.
China has also held overseas press events, including one this week in Canberra, released state press documentaries and a music film, invited diplomats from friendly countries such as Iran, Malaysia and Russia to visit Xinjiang. and has promoted likeable YouTubers and foreign news sites.
He has also targeted individual analysts, journalists and academics from overseas think tanks with sanctions, amplifying critical comments on social media and aggressive state media coverage.
Officials from China’s Foreign Ministry and the Xinjiang government say efforts are needed to counter the “lies and slander” published by a network of “anti-China forces” abroad.
“DAD, WHEN WILL YOU COME BACK?”
Uighurs living abroad have said videos of relatives, often produced by Chinese state media, are depicted.
“The piece is basically driving a narrative that we Uighurs from abroad are the ones who suddenly left our families, which is laughable,” Australia-based Mamutjan Abdurehim said on Twitter in March. after a Chinese state broadcaster posted pictures of his family in Kashgar.
On Friday, Chinese officials shared clips of Mamutjan’s daughter, sitting next to her grandparents.
“Daddy, when are you coming back?” We all miss you, ”he said.
UN experts and researchers estimate that more than a million people, mostly Uyghurs, have been detained in an extensive network of camps across Xinjiang since 2017. China initially denied that the camps existed, but since then he said that they are vocational training centers and that all people are “graduates” there.
During Friday’s event, officials pointed to databases created by foreign activists that have documented the names and details of people trapped in China’s camping system.
Officials said they had confirmed the identities of 10,708 people listed in overseas databases, but said more than 1,300 people on the list were “completely invented,” while more than 6,000 live “alive.” normal “.
Officials said 3,244 people listed in a database were serving court sentences inside Xinjiang “for crimes of public safety danger in Xinjiang, terrorism and other crimes.”
They said 238 had died of disease and other causes.
Overseas rights groups and some relatives of people detained in Xinjiang say they have not been given details of the whereabouts or the sentences of their relatives. Xinjiang courts do not make public the vast majority of rulings or case details.
Cate Cadell Reports; Edited by Tony Munroe and William Mallard