Ürümqi, Aksu. Eleven speakers have already spoken this morning, without a single break. Some in the conference room of the state guesthouse in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang, scroll boredly on their smartphones. The Chinese official next to me is hanging in his chair.
The autonomous region in China's far west has come under international criticism over allegations of forced labor and human rights violations against Uyghurs. Now it is the location and topic of a trip organized by Chinese authorities, in which I am taking part as a Handelsblatt correspondent. Exceptionally, because we normally avoid state-organized journalist trips to China.
The aim of such trips is “not to convince people on site through transparency and open access,” says Katja Drinhausen from the China think tank Merics. “Instead, they want to show that representatives of many states and sectors do not believe the allegations of human rights violations.” I want to understand this strategy in more detail.
Barry Sautman is the next speaker. As soon as the 77-year-old professor steps onto the stage, the cell phone cameras go off. The US-Canadian political scientist from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is apparently the one many have been waiting for. Suddenly there is a mood in the room.
Sautman goes on the attack. The US has created a “politainment industry” that conceals evidence of American crimes and spreads unsubstantiated accusations against states that do not submit to Washington. His most important example: the allegations that China is oppressing the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and forcing people to work. A “genocide industry” is using the accusation of the “worst of all crimes” as a political weapon, he calls out to the full hall.
His presentation is in clear contrast to studies that accuse China of serious human rights violations against Muslim minorities such as the Uyghurs. Work by Laura Murphy and Sheffield Hallam University, the German researcher Adrian Zenz, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Björn Alpermann, Chair of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Würzburg, document state-organized labor transfers whose conditions meet the UN labor organization ILO's criteria for forced labor.
The results, based on interviews but also Chinese sources, suggest that these are not individual cases of abuse, but rather a system. According to Alpermann, Uyghur farmers should be persuaded by pressure from local cadres to give up their farmland in order to work in factories in distant places. According to the researcher, they are housed there in dormitories under surveillance and control.
Sautman used to be a “serious social scientist,” says Alpermann about the star speaker. In recent years, however, he has sacrificed his scientific nature "in order to aggressively dismiss any criticism of the Communist Party's policies in Xinjiang as 'geopolitically motivated', i.e. in the service of the USA or worse."
If it wanted to, Beijing could seriously address the allegations. But for this to happen, journalists, experts and scientists would have to be given free access to the factories, dormitories and schools. But there is no such thing, instead there are new laws, for example to combat espionage, which strengthen the bulwark against unwanted insights, as sinologist Drinhausen from Merics says.
The program at the conference in Xinjiang is set and foreign journalists are closely monitored. I was able to travel freely after the conference. But the authorities asked countless times whether and when my return flight to Shanghai was planned. During a previous stay in Xinjiang, I was followed by security guards in cars for days.
“Conferences and trips through Xinjiang organized by Chinese government agencies serve external propaganda,” says Alpermann. How exactly will become clear to me over the course of these two and a half days.
Most of the audience at the conference took photos of Sautman's slides and munched on his theses. Chinese journalists are editing their video contributions at the same time. Just hours later, pleasant articles appear in Chinese state media and abroad. “Foreign guests refute allegations of ‘forced labor’ against China’s Xinjiang,” headlines China’s nationalist state newspaper Global Times, for example. Sautman's statements are adopted, without classification, without examination.
The aim is to give the guests “greater authority for their positive presentation of the situation in Xinjiang,” says Alpermann. After all, they were “on site” while many critics were denied entry. Foreign visitors are particularly valuable for the Chinese side: their statements can be presented in international debates as independent confirmation of the official narrative.
I don't meet any critics among the speakers. Many of the guests were invited by the organizers of the trip, but the Handelsblatt paid my travel and accommodation costs. Nevertheless, given the many cameras, bloggers and YouTubers on site, there is still a risk of becoming a propaganda pawn.
I try to remain as invisible as possible and only register at short notice so that my name doesn't appear in the pre-printed brochure. At events, I sit in the back row so that the cameramen can film over me. But becoming part of the Xinjiang show cannot be completely avoided.
Chinese authorities regularly organize such trips and “friendship” meetings. This time there are around 325 guests from 33 countries, including Algeria, Russia, Serbia, Italy, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Germany. A striking number of participants come from Central Asia and Southeast Asia, from countries in the global south, where China is expanding its influence.
Well-known names should give the event more weight. Former Thai parliament speaker Bhokin Bhalakula criticizes Western media and raves about China's development. Vito Petrocelli, former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Italian Senate, who was kicked out of the Five Star Movement in 2022 because of pro-Russian statements, calls for understanding for Beijing's view of human rights: fighting poverty, infrastructure, access to health and education - that too is human rights protection.
One of the few nuances comes from Sangheon Lee, the South Korean chief economist at the UN labor organization ILO. Labor mobility is part of it, he says. The question, however, is whether it is “voluntary and informed”. He combines quiet criticism of possible coercive measures with diplomatic praise: "That's why we see significant potential in the region to create more and better jobs where people live, rather than relying primarily on moving people to where jobs are available." Alpermann criticizes the fact that the high UN official ennobles the event with his participation.
The choreography resembles a half tourist, half political journey. Before the conference we go to Kashgar or Aksu, famous oasis cities on the former Silk Road, and to Ili in the north. On the program: cotton fields, old towns, dance performances by ethnic minorities, agricultural businesses. Xinjiang is the gateway to Central Asia trade; the region is four and a half times the size of Germany.
The landscape around Aksu, located far to the west, close to the Kyrgyz border, inspires all travelers - including me again and again. From the air it looks like a dry lakebed, with bizarre sand and rock structures. The route from Ürümqi to Aksu leads along the Tian Shan Mountains, powdered white in the lower elevations and thick glaciers on the peaks.
Many of the images taken in these places end up in a video that plays at the beginning of the conference: it is intended to demonstrate the beauty - and the supposed unity - of the country. Dancing people dressed in traditional costumes, united in harmony, without political conflicts. I can also be seen in a few shots, with a serious face, lucky me.
In Aksu I can visit a cotton mill owned by the Huafu company, which produces color-spun yarns. A sweet smell of machine oil hangs in the halls, the monotonous rattling of the spinning machines drowns out the conversations. Around a million spindles, the company says. I can't count it, but the building is huge.
Huafu has been involved in “poverty eradication” and job creation programs for “surplus rural workers” for years, according to Chinese sources. During the tour, a speaker rejected allegations of forced labor. Employees would apply voluntarily and members of ethnic minorities would be subject to the same recruitment criteria, training and pay standards as others.
At least I can ask the question. However, the answer cannot be verified. Uighur employees can be seen in the factory. Discussions about their working conditions are not planned. The spokesman admits that US sanctions and the withdrawal of Western customers have had a significant impact on business. Sales are shifting to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Only three percent of exports went to the EU; before the sanctions it was ten to 15 percent.
China hopes to be able to free Xinjiang from the burden of sanctions, and this trip is also intended to serve that purpose. Apparently the representative of a well-known European clothing company was already there again, and the name of another well-known European manufacturer was also mentioned. However, when asked, both companies denied ever having had direct or indirect business relationships with Huafu.
Fed with such impressions from factories, farms and samples of tasty dried fruits, nuts and grapes, some fellow travelers later rave about the hospitality of the Chinese authorities, on stage and in front of the camera.
How cleverly the production works can be seen in the exhibition “The Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang”, which is part of the program. Its title is based on a white paper from the Chinese State Council. This refers to the unrest in Ürümqi in 2009 with, according to Chinese information, almost 200 deaths, the knife attack at the Kunming train station in March 2014 with around 30 deaths and the car attack on Tian'anmen Square in October 2013 with five deaths.
There are still security gates at hotels and restaurants in Urumqi and Kashgar today. Chinese authorities blamed Uyghur perpetrators and a network called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The assignment is not independently proven for all attacks.
The problem since then: Islamist terrorism has been equated with Uighur protest movements and aspirations for autonomy. A plaque in the exhibition states: “Separatism is the breeding ground in which terrorism and extremism take root in Xinjiang.” It's a quote from the government's white paper. This marks the transition from Uyghur protests to Islamist murderers.
In fact, the violence was followed not only by the dismantling of the perpetrator groups, but also by a massive security campaign against Uyghurs and other population groups considered disloyal. Thousands of Uyghurs are said to still be interned and their whereabouts are unclear.
The exhibition shows graphic images of terror victims, including an unpixelated beheading scene. First the force of the brutality, then the redemption: the story of a blessed state that brought security and prosperity, and in the end the stabilizing role of the party and Xi Jinping. This dramaturgy delivers on a small scale what the trip is intended to achieve on a large scale: fear and emotions are stirred up, then gratitude is intended to arise for China's tough crackdown and its development work in the region.
Some of the illustrious guests also support this strategy. Mark Levine, for example, is an American sociologist and English teacher at Minzu University in Beijing. He was awarded the “Chinese Government Friendship Award” and now praises “protecting human rights by maintaining public safety and people's prosperity.” The amateur country musician is regularly featured in Chinese state media.
The German sinologist Ole Döring, a professor at the University of Changsha and, according to his own statement, until recently an economic advisor to the Hunan provincial government, also finds only positive words for the Chinese government. I asked him afterwards whether he saw no risk of being exploited for the image campaign. He can only influence this “both in China and in Europe by working seriously,” Döring replies via Wechat. The rest depends “on the honesty and competence of the people involved – I can’t control that.”
In July, Döring published a guest article in the party newspaper "China Daily" in which he attested to European parties' "pure retention of power" and then expressly praised the Chinese Communist Party. Döring thus joins a phalanx of Western voices that at least indirectly promote China's PR strategy. As wanted from the highest authorities: Xi Jinping had demanded that the “Xinjiang story” be told well.
