A seminar in Islamabad presented the region, where a genocide of Muslim Uyghurs is taking place, as a land where freedom of religion reigns.
by Massimo Introvigne
Pakistan remains a center of China’s propaganda spreading fake news on Xinjiang, which are often repeated by the local government.
Several Parliaments in the Western world have acknowledged the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic people in Xinjiang as “genocide,” while the United Nations and the European Parliament stated that China is committing “crimes against humanity” in the region.
Yet, it was solemnly proclaimed in Pakistan that the “Xinjiang region is enjoying the best time in its history,” a provocative comment about a region whose inhabitants are targeted by crimes against humanity and genocide. The statement was uttered by the Chinese Deputy Chief of Missions (DCM) of Beijing’s Embassy to Pakistan, Shi Yuangqiang, at a seminar on “Dynamics of Xinjiang in Pakistani Perspective” hosted on May 18 in Islamabad by the Overseas Chinese Association Rawalpindi. It was as if German diplomats in Nazi times had tried to persuade their audiences that Jews in Germany were “enjoying the best time in their history.”
The seminar was attended by politicians and journalists. Shi particularly insisted that Uyghurs in Xinjiang “are enjoying the religious freedom that rejects the malicious propaganda campaigns of Western think tanks.”
Shi praised Pakistan as one of the “best friends” of China and promised more economic support.
A sad but emblematic moment was where Uyghur children brought to the event had to lip sync in Chinese, i. e., pretend to be singing while in fact just moving their lips in synchronicity with pre-recorded songs.
This was an emblematic moment: Uyghur’s youth cannot really sing their own songs, but they are admitted to lip sync the songs of their colonizers, while Pakistani VIPs applaud.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
