Tourists visit the Kanas Nature Reserve in Altay prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. (Photo/XINHUA)
IV. A "report" released by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in March 2020 claims that "more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between 2017 and 2019". In fact, this "report" is full of loopholes and lacks the minimum factual basis.
◆The ASPI is not an independent, impartial research institute. It receives funding from the Australian Department of Defence, NATO, the US State Department, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and arms producers such as Lockheed Martin from the US.
◆The lead author of the "report" is Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, an anti-China individual who has defended the Falun Gong cult and described Chinese-Australians who oppose the violent rioters in Hong Kong as being "brainwashed" by the Chinese government.
◆The "report" is self-contradictory and does not add up. For example, on the one hand, it decries the "isolation" of the minority workers who "speak almost no Mandarin" and whose "communication with locals is largely non-existent." On the other hand, it denounces Mandarin language classes offered to workers as insidious "political indoctrination".
◆The "report" presents no original evidence on "forced laborers", but cites anonymous "testimonies" from an obscure, far-right online blog called "Bitter Winter". The blog is a project of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an Italy-based organization that supported various cult organizations such as Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Church of Almighty God (Eastern Lightning).
◆The Australian media has suppressed the criticism of the "report" and attempted to manipulate public opinion. Shortly after the release of the "report", the Australian Broadcasting Corporation aired a program on the lead author, Vicky Xiuzhong Xu. According to a Chinese-Australian interviewed by the program, the interviewer pushed him to praise Vicky's research on Xinjiang and made it clear that they were not looking for negative comments. A Chinese Muslim living in Australia revealed that Australian media outlets often attempt to manipulate Chinese-Australians into echoing the official narrative on China, and said that an interviewer from SBS, a television network funded by the Australian government, "wanted me to confirm her narrative that the Chinese government had operatives following me and were actively suppressing me in Australia".
