BEIJING (Reuters) – At a crowded press conference in Beijing on Friday, Chinese officials released a video of a thin, shaven-headed Uighur man in an oversized uniform speaking directly to the camera.
“I will try my best to change and receive the leniency of the party and the government,” said the man, Erkin Tursun, a former TV producer who, officials say, is serving a 20-year sentence in Xinjiang on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred.” , ethnic discrimination and coverage of crimes ”.
Tursun, almost unrecognizable from the photos shared online before his arrest in 2018, addresses his son, who now lives abroad and has publicly pleaded against Tursun’s detention, which he says is arbitrary.
He was one of more than half a dozen such segments that featured Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority in the western region, pleading with relatives abroad to come home and stop speaking out against China and the ruling Communist Party.
Such news conferences have become a key element of Beijing’s expansion campaign to defend its Xinjiang policies amid growing criticism from the West, including US sanctions and allegations of genocide, as Beijing prepares to host the Winter Olympics. from 2022 to February.
For months, China has increasingly pushed against global criticism of its Xinjiang policies, including explicit attacks on women who have allegedly abused them.
Last month, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. China retaliated with its own sanctions.
Some major Western brands, such as H&M, which is facing boycotts in China over their previous statements about Xinjiang, are struggling to find a balance between consumers in the world’s second-largest economy and public opinion at home.
The Beijing propaganda campaign, which included 11 media sessions in the capital since December, has repeatedly included efforts to discredit overseas Uighurs talking to the media.
China also hosted overseas press events, including one this week in Canberra, released state press documentaries and a music film, invited diplomats from friendly countries, including Iran, Malaysia and Russia, to visit Xinjiang. and promoted likeable YouTubers and foreign news sites.
It also targeted individual analysts, journalists and academics with sanctions, amplifying critical comments on social media and aggressive coverage of the state media.
Officials from China’s Foreign Ministry and the Xinjiang government say efforts are needed to counter the “lies and slander” launched by a network of “anti-China forces” abroad.
– FATHER, WHEN DO YOU WANT TO RETURN?
Uighurs living abroad said videos with relatives were staged, often produced by Chinese state media.
“The play practically pushes a narrative that Uighurs from abroad have suddenly abandoned our families, which is ridiculous,” Australian-based Mamutjan Abdurehim said on Twitter in March after a Chinese state broadcaster released footage. of his family in Kashgar.
On Friday, Chinese officials shared videos about Mamutjan’s daughter sitting next to her grandparents.
“Daddy, when are you coming back? We all miss you, ”she said.
UN experts and researchers estimate that more than a million people, mostly Uighurs, have been detained in a vast network of camps in Xinjiang since 2017. China initially denied that there were camps, but has since said they are centers. and that all people have “graduated”.
During Friday’s event, officials searched databases set up by overseas activists who documented the names and details of people trapped in China’s camp system.
Officials said they confirmed the identities of 10,708 people listed in overseas databases, but said more than 1,300 people on the list were “fully made up,” while more than 6,000 lived “normal lives.”
Officials said 3,244 people listed in a database are serving court sentences in Xinjiang “for offenses that endanger public security in Xinjiang, terrorism and other crimes.”
They said 238 died of disease and other causes.
Overseas rights groups and some relatives of people detained in Xinjiang say they have not been given details about the whereabouts or sentences of their relatives. Xinjiang courts do not make the vast majority of judgments or case details public.
Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Tony Munroe and William Mallard