dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMThe People’s Republic of China has made huge efforts to legitimize and justifytheir occupation in East Turkistan over the past 61 years. It is possible to say thatthe Chinese Communist Party has been successful in forming public opinionabout the occupation of East Turkistan through their television channel CCTV,as well as 56 other television stations and thousands of central and local mediachannels. Chinese public opinion regards East Turkistan as their own territory;it is as a direct result of this that the Chinese carried out demonstrations duringthe events of July 5, at which they chanted slogans like: “Uyghurs out of Xinjiang;Uyghurs go to Turkey!”Even if over the last 61 years disinformation has not had an effect on theUyghur Turks, after the events of July 5 in Urumchi the Chinese governmenthas targeted the World Uyghur Council and Rabia Kadir, declaring them tobe criminals. Although the Chinese government claims that they have soundevidence establishing that these events were ignited by Rabia Kadir, the Chinesehave yet to produce any evidence that would legitimize the massacre committed.Even though the Chinese Communist Party has itself confessed, throughstatements and reports, that they do not have sound evidence, the claims theyput forward have had a significant impact on Chinese public opinion and most ofthe international community. Many Chinese people still believe that the ChineseCommunist Party was right and that the targeted community presented a threatto their security. The disclosure of some hidden facts after the events of July 5in Urumchi has revealed that the Chinese administration is adept at providingdisinformation. The Chinese media has helped bring the lies of the Chinesegovernment to the people. CCTV, one of the largest media organs in China,and daily newspapers such as The China Daily News, Renmen Rebao (The People’sNewspaper) and Guang Meng Ribao (The Light Newspaper) have published andbroadcast the claims of the Chinese Communist Party, declaring that all Uyghurpeople are criminals. The most serious issue here is the attempt to depict all Uygurpeople as “terrorists” to international public opinion.The use of disinformation in China as a state policyRupert Cornwell, correspondent for The Independent, suggests that usingdisinformation as a state policy dates back to the October Revolution in Russia514