Secret brutality by Chinese authorities was hard enough for the world to deal with. Open, unblushing repression is a greater headache
this week confronted with documentary evidence that it has built a vast and cruel police state in its far-western region of Xinjiang. In what appears to be an extraordinary leak of official Chinese papers, thepublished secret speeches by President Xi Jinping urging that Muslims infected with the “virus” of extremism undergo “a period of painful, interventionary treatment”.
Chinese officials have offered three contradictory responses. The government of Xinjiang called the report a “complete fabrication” cooked up by anti-China forces in the West who cannot bear to see their region succeed. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry took a more cautious line. Rather than deny the report outright, he called it a “clumsy patchwork” that distorted “so-called internal documents” in order to smear China’s successful counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation policies.
It may sound counter-intuitive, given the risks that Uighur activists, exiles and Western researchers run to bring information about Xinjiang to the outside world, but honesty may turn out to be harder for the West to handle than outrageous lies. That is because, judging by the Mr Xi seen in the leaked papers, that unapologetic worldview—China is ruthless, and needs to be—is close to his own.
Secret brutality by Chinese authorities was hard enough for the world to deal with. Open, unblushing repression is a still greater headache. Challenging horrors in Xinjiang may involve confronting Chinese public opinion, as well as China’s rulers. It is unclear whether the world has the stomach for that fight."Totalitarian and proud"
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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