'Uyghur Tribunal' exposes double standards

The so-called Uyghur Tribunal in the United Kingdom recently ruled that China was committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in its Xinjiang region. The "tribunal" has drawn global attention as some Western media have given it wide and uncritical coverage.

However, independent analysts and jurists think the "tribunal" has nothing to do with laws. The "tribunal" goes against the law because it is operating as a private UK company limited by guarantee. Such companies are generally used in the UK for societies, charities, etc. It is a completely voluntary civil organization that has nothing to do with the law and trial. Therefore, the private company limited by guarantee can't form and run such a "tribunal". Many think it only usurps the name of the '"tribunal"' which is against the spirit of laws.

The "tribunal" has exposed the double standards of the Anglo-Saxon allies--the US, UK, Canada, and Australia—to the world. The "tribunal" has blamed China for so-called violations of human rights, that too based on fabricated stories run by some media companies of the allies. But they remain totally silent on gross and serious violations of human rights and genocides many countries have long been conducting.

Analysts are of the view that the "tribunal" is part of long anti-China propaganda aimed at drawing global attention. This is designed to keep the propaganda running for long by providing the media with content for publishing fabricated stories against China based on its procedures as in hearings, charge-framing, and delivering verdicts to name a few. In a word, the "tribunal" is nothing but a "propaganda show" against China jointly produced and staged by anti-China forces.

If we look into the formation of the "tribunal" and the individuals and organizations involved with it, we can realize why the "tribunal" is a "propaganda show" called to run constant smear campaigns against the Chinese people and their government. Because all of them are well-known as die-hard sinophobes.

The "tribunal" was launched on September 3, 2020, with the assistance of a non-governmental organization, the Coalition for Genocide Response. The "tribunal" was established in response to the request made by Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress. The president formally requested Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a British barrister, to establish and chair the "tribunal". The WUC is funded in part by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an international program of the Central Intelligence Agency of the US. The US-based news site Grayzone unveiled the WUC is a US-backed right-wing regime-change network seeking the fall of China. It heavily relies on US funding and political guidance. The WUC has become a political tool for the US new Cold War and media campaign against China.

The Coalition for Genocide Response was founded on November 4, 2019, by a few British parliamentarians and experts. One of its co-founders is Luke de Pulford, an infamous anti-China figure. He also coordinates the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and advises the WUC, according to media reports.

Sir Geoffrey Nice, well-known for his anti-China activities, has been the lead prosecutor at the trial of Slobodan Milošević in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Michael Mandel, a Canadian legal academic, William Blum, an internationally-renowned American journalist and author, and others accused the ICTY of having a pro-NATO bias due to its refusal to prosecute NATO officials and politicians for war crimes.

Apart from them, one dozen experts have been invited to the hearings of the so-called Uyghur Tribunal to present evidence, including academics such as anthropologist Darren Byler, Chinese Studies professor Joanne Smith Finley, researcher Nathan Ruser, and researcher Adrian Zenz.

To keep the article short, I have to confine the discussion only to Adrian Zenz, the so-called Xinjiang expert spreading the lies about Muslim oppression in the northwest region of China. Zenz, a German anthropologist, is a senior fellow in China who studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He is also a lecturer in social research methodology at the Evangelical theological institution Akademie für Weltmission.

In 2019, the German anthropologist published a study mentioning that some 1.5 million Uighurs have been detained in Xinjiang at any time since late 2016. He claimed to have estimated the number based on extrapolations from food allowance subsidies figures of the Chinese government.

But Newsweek Japan divulged the secret of his study by reporting that Zenz's estimates were sourced by Istiqlal, an Uyghur exile-operated media based in Turkey. The Japanese media report made it crystal clear that Zenz is spreading the statements of Uyghur separatists in the name of 'independent studies.

But Western media never bother to take this reality into account. They are indifferently disseminating the flawed studies of the German anthropologist. Likewise, the Anglo-Saxon allies care little about the legality and authenticity of the so-called tribunal as they themselves have established it to continue propaganda against China in a new format.

Md Enamul Hassan is a news editor at China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing, China.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

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