Human rights campaign or political harassment of foreign businesses in Xinjiang?

If genocide is going on in China, the West should be ashamed of what it is NOT doing. But if there isn’t one, it should be even more ashamed for what it IS doing

Alex Lo

Published: 9:00pm, 20 Jan 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

Two North American entrepreneurs have got into hot water over comments they made recently about the Uygurs in Xinjiang. Both were ambushed by their interviewers. These days, unless you follow the preapproved politically correct script about “genocide” in Xinjiang, you are bound to get into trouble, especially when you are a foreigner with a sizeable business in Xinjiang. But why just those in Xinjiang, and not the whole of China itself?

If the worst of crimes is being committed by a country, you would think it hardly matters in which province or region it is being committed. You must campaign against the whole country.

Unless, of course, you know you are exaggerating and blowing undeniable human rights violations, terrible as they are, out of all proportion, for political purposes. The only problem is, when you cry wolf over China’s “genocide” this time, you will have little credibility when real genocides take place in future. And you are redefining away or watering down this gravest of accusations and crimes so as to render it meaningless. You are also ignoring and covering up horrible atrocities being done by your own governments in the West.

That, actually, was the point made by American-Canadian billionaire investor and co-owner of the National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors, Chamath Palihapitiya. He has been castigated in the English-language media for saying: “Let’s be honest, nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uygurs, OK?”

He is, no doubt, wrong, even factually. Given the orchestrated and sustained Western campaign, a lot of people who might not have otherwise, have ended up caring. Whether they are helping is another issue. But he was not wrong when he then tried to clarify and explain himself, in a podcast with US internet investor and interviewer Jason Calacanis.

What is going on in Xinjiang and who are the Uygur people?

Western countries had their own track records of human rights abuses, Palihapitiya said, including wars of aggression and torture at domestic prisons. Concerns about foreign atrocities, such as the furore over China and the Uygurs, he added, had at times even served as a cover for military interventions that caused immense sufferings. Virtually all English-language news media skipped this part of the interview.

In Afghanistan, for example, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. US sanctions against the Taliban account for a good deal of what now looks like collective punishment against a people Washington claimed even just a few months ago to be fighting for their rights and freedoms with its “forever war”. The country’s financial system has essentially collapsed because US sanctions have cut off access to international finance and banking.

Meantime, the BBC managed to produce an entire three minute-plus video segment, whose sole purpose, I can only surmise, was to embarrass Craig Smith, chief executive of US snowboarding brand Burton China, for operating in the restive region.

A hapless Smith pleaded ignorance and said he only knew about his company’s business in Xinjiang, but not the politics in the region. Robin Brant, BBC’s China correspondent, pressed him by saying he must have read press reports. What, like those from the BBC and Brant’s?

BBC World is now practically running daily anti-China stories about Xinjiang and “debt trap” diplomacy and what not. It even twisted the words of a US expert on debt trap financing to make it look like she said the opposite of what she intended. (See my column on December 17.)

Volkswagen, Tesla and Intel are among the more famous foreign firms operating in Xinjiang. No doubt the BBC can give the third degree to each one of those companies down a long list, day after day, to fill airtime.

But as I said before, I am puzzled by the BBC and others for focusing so much on foreign investments in Xinjiang. If China really was committing genocide as the Nazis did to the Jews, the Turks to the Armenians, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, I for one would urge global campaigns against the whole country and the entire Chinese government, and boycott companies in China, not just those with operations in Xinjiang. Western governments should ban their athletes from attending the Beijing Winter Olympics, not just refuse to send officials. Despite his mild boycott, US President Joe Biden is actually sending middle to low-level government officials to help out with security and logistics in Beijing. Seriously, Mr Biden, if you truly believe a genocide is going on …

Or is there? If there is a genocide, the West should be ashamed of what it is NOT doing. But if there isn’t one, it should be even more ashamed for what it IS doing.

Some people do get it right. Polish President Andrzej Duda is not one who is shy about taking a tough line against China when he thinks it’s justified. But in announcing he would attend the Winter Olympics, he stated the obvious, but rather forthrightly: “[I]t’s no longer in Poland’s interests to continue criticising China simply to please the Americans.”

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