Liars and loudspeakers: the making of the Anglo-American media’s “Framing China, Defaming Xinjiang” series

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By Wu Chaolan, Dennis Meng (People's Daily Online) 15:55, May 18, 2021

A woman dressed in black, sniveling about her grievances and indescribable agony, comes out to the world in front of the media--a move that is guaranteed to incite public wrath and pity. If the accuser is repeatedly carried into the spotlight without any solid proof, however, she may eventually wear the public’s patience thin and risk losing all of the initial newsworthiness. But if the accused is… wait for it… China, then purporting to represent truth in reporting need not matter anymore in the eyes of the Anglo-American media.

So long as the accuser has a Chinese appearance, used to live in China, and is able to tell a “good” story (all while sobbing into the camera lens), she can certainly pass the audition for any anti-China “show”. With their casting call having been met, you are now about to witness the making of the “Framing China, Defaming Xinjiang” series, directed and produced by the Anglo-American media, which tells the story about a lie, a complete lie, and nothing but a lie. 

Meet Qelbinur Sedik, Tursunay Ziyawudun, and Zumret Dawut, the regular cast of the series and frequent guests on the BBC, Guardian, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, and other Anglo-American media outlets.

A quick glimpse at their gloomy portraits below news headlines will naturally entice the unsuspecting to click on the links to their depressing “stories”. Following the links, readers will find that they happened to “escape” to America or Sweden after “being raped”, “corralled in camps”, or “sterilized”. They happened to be spotted by “empathetic” news producers and reporters who have been eager to churn out their exclusive pieces “revealing a place without ever been there” or earth-shaking news items “turning the place upside down to find ‘weapons of mass destruction’”. They happened to spin yarns that rehashed the mendacious, manufactured report concocted by Adrian Zenz , a so-called scholar who has spared no efforts to translate his Sino-phobic sentiments into fraudulent and fabricated reports on Xinjiang.

Related Reading: Anglo-American institutions are leading anti-China campaign with false accounts of repression in Xinjiang, a special report found

Zumret Dawut

This is not Zumret Dawut's first time defaming China's “Pair Up and Become Family” program, a policy that has been well received by the people of all ethnic groups. She claimed that she was served pork at a relative's home. In fact, the relative she referred to was the pairing relative of her elder brother Abduhelil Dawut, namely Zhao Qilin. The meal was prepared by Zhao's mother, who is herself an ethnic Hui and a practicing Muslim, someone who only eats halal food. It was not possible for her to have provided a "pork meal".

To promote the unity of different ethnicities in Xinjiang, China has implemented the “Pair Up and Become Family” program in which some 1.1 million officials have paired up and made friends with 1.6 million local people, treating each other like family members. The program aims to enhance communication and interaction among different ethnic groups in Xinjiang, which is beneficial to the public. The officials help local people explore ways to shake off poverty and address difficulties in their lives, such as access to medical services, job opportunities, and education. The program has enjoyed great popularity among people in Xinjiang.

Tursunay Ziyawudun

As the only one who claimed to be a “victim” of “gang-rape”, Tursunay Ziyawudun is now a famous star in the Western media’s sensational reports, which have only focused on amplifying her “heart-wrenching experiences” with no intention to verify the truthfulness of her claims. It is easy to see that Ziyawudun’s so-called testimonies are inconsistent when comparing reports of her story, having told different versions of the purportedly same narrative. For instance, in the BBC report, Tursunay claimed that her earrings had been “yanked out,” causing her ears to bleed. But in the BuzzFeed report, this part was described as the police asking the woman to take off her earrings.

Qelbinur Sidik