(East-West Question) Why is the dispute between China and the United States for the right to speak in Xinjiang? Why is it a contest between "true" and "false"?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 16th, Question: Why is the contest between China and the United States for the right to speak in Xinjiang, why is it a contest between "true" and "fake"?
Author Zhou Li Jian Huimin
In recent years, the United States and the West have continued to manipulate Xinjiang-related issues, from vocational education and training centers to cotton, photovoltaic and other industries, from the "Xinjiang-related Act" to the "Uyghur Court", from politics, religion, business, sports, culture and other fields. It has successively hyped up issues such as "genocide", "forced labor" and "human rights violations", and continues to make false accusations against China's Xinjiang.
What are its technical means and underlying logic?
Why is it said that the essence of the dispute between China and the United States for the right to speak in Xinjiang is a contest between "true" and "false"?
U.S. guides audience emotions to cover up the truth about Xinjiang
Facts have shown that China's Xinjiang governance strategy has brought Xinjiang a picture of social stability and harmony, vigorous economic development, and continuous improvement of people's lives. Xinjiang's development and progress are obvious to all.
The Chinese government, the general public, academia, and some people of insight in the world have long seen clearly the conspiracy of the US and the West to "use Xinjiang to control China". There are more and more objective and rational voices on the Xinjiang issue in the world, but China has still not been able to Completely reverse the trend of international Xinjiang-related public opinion.
This precisely reflects the nature of Xinjiang-related public opinion, that is, the concealed truth and the lies coerced by public opinion coexist.
There is an obvious contradiction here: on the one hand, China keeps showing the truth; on the other hand, the United States and Western countries don’t care what the truth is, they care more about the audience’s attention and emotions, as well as their existing cognitive biases against China repackaging and refortification.
The "reverse invalidation" of this truth deserves vigilance.
That is, the truth does not have a positive effect because it is revealed; when the truth is admitted in an unexpected way, it will cause a reverse failure.
When the United States and Western countries choose Xinjiang to set their agenda, they have already determined the elements that compete for attention and guide emotions. They rely on their communication skills and expression technology to seize the facts and plots that meet their own interests, either out of context and fragmented, or according to their own. It is determined by the standards of the public opinion, and the so-called "truth" that it wants the audience to see is spread out.
Once the audience is attracted, they will attach new elements and plots to continuously push up public opinion.
To resolve this problem, we must deeply grasp the methods and underlying logic of the U.S. Xinjiang-related agenda.
Citizens in Urumqi, Xinjiang take outdoor equipment on vacation in the scenic area.
China News Agency reporter Liu Xinshe
Using technology to "put the story in the story"
The U.S. Xinjiang-related agenda is a historical, systematic, and value-based conspiracy of multiple interest groups. It is “wrapped in a story” through technical means such as “imaginative misreading” and “unreliable narrative”. practice.
Students in Xinjiang secondary vocational class of Changxing County Vocational Education Center in Zhejiang Province study modern Hu sheep breeding courses.
After completing their studies, they can choose jobs in Xinjiang or the local area.
Photo by Wu Zheng issued by China News Agency
The U.S. Xinjiang-related agenda is designed and created by the strategic coordination mechanism. Each issue is not isolated, and the elements behind it are not single. All parties are almost fully mobilized.
The process of generating the Xinjiang-related agenda is actually very clear. Reports are concocted by so-called scholars, research institutions and other dissidents, reported by traditional media, and incited and emotionally mobilized by social media. The government pays attention and expresses its position. Sanctions, several steps, either independent or intersecting, are repeated.
It can be seen from this that the United States is always asking questions without having to answer them. Once public attention and emotions begin to be mobilized, they will introduce new issues and create new focuses.
The basic elements involve a wide range of ethnicity, religion, history, culture, values, etc. The participants range from the government to political groups, think tanks, social organizations, private enterprises and world industry associations, from senior government officials to scholars and opinion leaders, to traditional and emerging media. .
The U.S. Xinjiang-related agenda attempts to tie the issue to Western collective memory and prejudice against China.
For example, the term "genocide" was originally coined to describe the destructive killings of European Jews; another example was "crimes against humanity", which was a charge brought against Nazi leaders by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
Contemporary human rights are based on reflection on human past atrocities.
Such issues are actually the painful lessons and unforgettable memories of the United States and Western countries in history. Projecting these pains on Xinjiang, China, coupled with the inherent prejudice against China in the American and Western societies, can easily arouse emotions.
The specific human rights involved in the U.S. Xinjiang-related issues are the basic freedoms and rights defended by the traditional human rights concepts of the United States and Western countries.
For example, "forced labor", "forced sterilization" and "arbitrary detention and abuse" are related to the freedom and rights of every individual citizen. "Religious persecution" and "political oppression" not only involve citizens' personal freedom and freedom of religious belief, but also involve citizens' basic "genocide", "mass violations of human rights" and "crimes against humanity" are not only related to the issue of the right to survival and destruction of an ethnic group, but also an issue involving international humanitarian law.
As a result, the US’s Xinjiang-related agenda is entirely based on its own country or Western standards. When it uses discourse hegemony, when Western countries have prejudice against China and cannot see China’s true development status, the audience will be limited to the US single Under the focus of consciousness and form.
Western public opinion can only listen to the leadership and orders of the imperial center.
In the fall of 2021, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will hold a special press conference on "Cotton Harvest" in the fields of Gulbagh Township, Yuli County.
At the press conference, Yuli County cotton picker driver Saimi Yusufu (first from the left) showed the cotton picker he was driving.
Photo by China News Agency Gou Jipeng
The interests are nested in each other to achieve the goal of "using Xinjiang to control China"
Behind the technological process of setting up the Xinjiang-related agenda in the United States hides its underlying logic—the inter-nesting of interests and values.
The United States must rely on the standards of values to justify and legitimize its behavior in the economic field.
On the Xinjiang issue, the United States must do the same if it wants to gain political and capital benefits from it.
Therefore, portraying Xinjiang as a moral stain under Western centrism and a business risk under geopolitics with seemingly logical discourses is aimed at tying up interests under values, and causing other subjects in the international community to generate cognitive biases and The double binding of value recognition and interest coercion makes China lose the legitimacy of its behavior in the international community, thereby isolating China and achieving the policy goal of "using Xinjiang to control China".
The United States takes advantage of the interest linkages formed in the context of globalization, combined with economic sanctions and export controls adopted by powerful political alliances, to create business risks and thus exclude China in the economic field.
Some companies, out of their own profit-seeking nature, have given up using Xinjiang products for fear of profit loss due to moral flaws.
Among them, the most obvious is the boycott of the "Xinjiang Cotton Incident". In March this year, Norway's sovereign wealth fund excluded China's Li Ning Company from fund investment; in the field of photovoltaic industry, Xinjiang-related products are also facing a similar situation.
Under the coercion of interests and values, power and capital are superimposed, and China's image and label are generated in a way that is distorted and inspected, and continue to solidify.
Chinese clothing companies displayed Xinjiang cotton T-shirts at the press conference.
Photo by Zhang Ke issued by China News Agency
China needs to stay clear-headed for long-term planning
China's strategy for governing Xinjiang has made Xinjiang achieve world-renowned development achievements. This is a fact, so China has full confidence.
The US only uses the so-called "truth" as a tool or means. With its first-mover advantage and discourse hegemony, China's response may become a link in the US communication chain.
Although truth and justice always trump lies and hypocrisy, the same fact, depending on the recipient's purpose, may face different descriptions; in the eyes of people with different values, different conclusions may be drawn.
China must have a clearer understanding and be prepared and plan for a long-term struggle.
When China deals with Xinjiang-related issues, it needs to consider how to get out of the systematic routine set up by the United States on this issue.
This requires China to transform historical and cultural self-confidence into cultural influence and dominance while strengthening cultural and road self-confidence, think about how to finely grasp the psychology of audiences in international communication, innovate means and methods of expression, and improve the technology and level of international communication .
(End) (The authors Zhou Li and Jian Huimin are associate professors and part-time research fellows of the Institute of Human Rights, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, respectively)
About the Author:
Zhou Li, male, associate professor, director of the Research and Management Department of the Human Rights Research Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, deputy editor-in-chief of "Human Rights Law" and "China Human Rights Review", and master tutor.
Appointed as the young academic editor of the Journal of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, the review expert of the "Ideological Theory Network Article Evaluation System" of the Think Tank Research and Publishing Center of "Guangming Daily" and the China Think Tank Research and Evaluation Center of Nanjing University.
His main research areas are human rights and non-traditional security, international human rights law, and human rights sociology.
Jian Huimin, female, is a part-time researcher at the Institute of Human Rights, Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Her main research fields are human rights and non-traditional security, and international human rights law.