You were told, by Western mass media outlets, to pity Uyghurs, an ethnic Chinese minority group from Xinjiang Province. You were instructed to ‘stand by them’, and to “defend their rights”.
They told you that Uyghurs are being discriminated against, and that China is, unfairly, trying to destroy their culture.
What you are not supposed to know is that many seemingly unrelated occurrences that you are following on your television screens or from the pages of your newspapers, are actually directly connected to the Uyghurs and their militant, pro-Western “World Uyghur Congress (WUC).”
You read about the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suddenly exploding, antagonizing Russia, even provoking the European Union, and sending more and more occupation troops into neighboring Syria. You could be forgiven for thinking that he has gone insane.
But no, there is actually a steely logic to his actions. For decades, Erdogan has believed that the Turkic minority ethnic group, mainly found in China’s Xinjiang Province, is the proverbial birthplace of the Turkish nation. When he was the mayor of the city of Istanbul, he even erected a small statue of a Uyghur, in the historical Sultan Ahmed neighborhood.
After the war in Syria erupted, or more precisely, after the West began an attempt to overthrow President Assad, Turkey brought militant Uyghurs from China, and began using them inside the Syrian territory. I described this in my lengthy essay “March of the Uyghurs”, published by this magazine (New Eastern Outlook). The longer version of the essay will soon be published as a book.
Turkey dragged Uyghur jihadi cadres and their families through Indonesia and other countries, supplying them with Turkish passports, for the length of the journey. It trained them in so-called refugee camps, mainly in the Hatay area (historically Syrian territory, arguably grabbed by Turkey after WWI)), eventually injecting them into Idlib (a Syrian province). There, often under the influence of combat drugs, Uyghur combatants committed crimes against humanity, murdering hundreds of men, women and children, while de-populating entire villages and towns. They have been cooperating with various terrorist groups, mainly from the Arab countries, which are still holding the area.
I interviewed several Syrian families who had fled in horror from the slaughter. I also interviewed Syrian commanders on the borders of the areas held by the terrorists, in 2019. Both the civilians and armed forces testified that they had never encountered such brutality in their entire lives.
Turkey, a NATO member, was basically doing a favor for its Western allies. The Uyghurs were injected into the Syrian jihadi battlefields, in order to get hardened even further, and eventually to return to China, disrupting peace as well as the vital “Belt and Road Initiative” – the great internationalist project of President Xi Jinping.
The restive Indonesian island of Sulawesi has also been used, although to a lesser extent, for the training of the Uyghur combatants.
Now, Turkish forces are holed up in the Idlib Governorate, directly engaging the Syrian army, while threatening the Russian military with yet another war.
Russia complains that Turkey has failed to separate terrorists from the legitimate opposition. This is actually defining the situation in extremely mild terms. Turkey is directly supporting terrorists in the Idlib area, and that includes several offshoots of what used to be known as ISIS, and by all means the Uyghurs and their contingents.
Ankara wants to rule over the region, once again, as it used to, in the past. But now it is playing an extremely complex game; it wants to re-build its empire by pitching NATO, the U.S., Europe, the terrorists, Islamists and Russia against each other.
For Turkey, the Uyghurs have just been another pawn in its brutal imperialist game.
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Even in Afghanistan – the new momentum is directly and indirectly related to the Uyghurs.
Syria is being liberated by its armed forces, and the terrorists are being gradually and silently evacuated by the Western allies, mainly Turkey. Where do they go? One of the countries is, of course, Afghanistan. Already two years ago, I was told in both Kabul and Jalalabad that ISIS were moving in huge numbers, to Afghanistan, where they operate predominantly in the rural areas.
There is no doubt that Uyghur jihadis are in Afghanistan, too. Now that thy are well-trained and hardened, they are ready to re-enter China, but also the former Soviet republics, even Russia.
All this goes in accordance with the U.S. and NATO plan.
Plus, the West recently, has been adding various distorted ‘sentimental elements’ to the conflict, portraying the Uyghurs living in Xinjiang as “victims”, twisting reality and suddenly playing what could be described as the “Muslim card”.
China has, historically, no issues with the Muslim people (it is the West that does, through colonialist and neo-colonialist adventurism). A visit to the old Chinese capital of Xi An would clearly illustrate how the Han and Muslim cultures have been inter-connected. Xi An is where the ancient “Silk Road” used to originate from, connecting China with Central Asia, and what is now defined as the Middle East, as well as the rest of the world.
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In December 2012, Global Times reported:
“The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an organization that is reportedly found to be linked to terrorist groups and receives money from Western political organizations, has long played an important role in smearing China’s policies in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and cementing Western media stereotypes of China.
Some Western media and politicians, together with the WUC, have hyped and smeared China’s policies in Xinjiang but remain silent about information released by the Chinese government or its media.
The WUC is headquartered in a low-rise building in Adolf-Kolping-Strasse near the railway station and commercial district of Munich in Germany.
The building, with an unnoticeable exterior, has become the heart of separatists from China’s Xinjiang and the mastermind behind many separatist activists in Xinjiang.
WUC’s core aim to split Xinjiang from China has never changed, Weinsheimer, a German scholar on China’s ethnic groups, told the Global Times.”
Reports like this are usually dismissed by Western propaganda and mass media as an attempt of the Chinese pro-government newspapers to cover up human rights violations against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
However, from my first-hand investigation in Turkey, Europe, Syria, Indonesia and several other parts of the world, it has become clear that China is using an even-handed approach, while facing an extremely dangerous terrorist threat on its own territory.
Even in Hong Kong, the “Uyghur issue” has been used by the West and Taiwan, as recently as in December 2019. I covered it, and as always, I have clear photographic proof.
What Global Times reported was actually only a soft reaction to the brutal policy of the West, which is aimed at breaking the most populous country on earth – PRC – into pieces.
That is why I periodically address this topic, which is so unpopular, even hidden, in the West.
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The Uyghurs are at the frontline of the West’s combat against China.
Washington, London, Berlin have several fronts open against Beijing. Various different types of fronts, too: economic, political, ideological, and even military.
To harm China (and Russia, Iran, Venezuala and others) is the main goal of Western foreign policy.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is ready to assist the United States, Europe and NATO (particularly Turkey) in their efforts to hurt China, and to disrupt BRI (Belt and Road Initiative).
Why? It is because BRI is the worst nightmare for Western neo-colonialism. I explain it in my recent book: “China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries Saving Millions of Lives”. China is deeply involved in this tremendous project which I often describe as the final stage of global de-colonialization. Russia is increasingly participating, too; in various cases even taking the lead.
The West cannot offer anything positive, optimistic. It is smearing China and Russia, and overthrowing or intimidating governments which do not want to sacrifice millions of their people on the altar of brutal extreme capitalism and Western imperialism. The Western mass media is warning writers not to use such “outdated terms”. Rubbish: they are not outdated; they are real! Imperialism never ended. Colonialism is still plundering and ruining dozens of countries on all continents.
China and Russia, as well as Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Cuba and others, are fighting for the wretched of the world. As simple as that.
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The WUC and its ‘president’, Dolkun Isa, have clearly decided to take the money and accept the diktat of the West.
Simultaneously, by hosting the headquarters of the WUC on its territory, Germany, once again, has decided to play an extremely negative role in global politics. No wonder, German flags are now flying all over Hong Kong, alongside the U.S. and U.K. ones, whenever the rioters decide to hit the streets. Germany foolheartedly backs the Hong Kong rioters, as well as the WUC.
By now, both Germany and Turkey have made up their minds, by joining forces with Washington and London, against the People’s Republic of China and its right to live a safe existence. It is a very dangerous situation, but it is real, and there is no reason to hide the reality.
The Uyghur extremists were designated to detonate both China and the progressive part of the world.
China is trying to calm the situation down, to negotiate in good faith. It is not easy.
The West, Turkey and the extremist Muslim forces operating all over the world, are pressing the radical Uyghurs and their WUC into a horrendous and bloody confrontation with Beijing.
It is time to make the situation known. The West’s game, deadly and enormously dangerous, must be exposed.
Andre Vltchek is philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He’s a creator of Vltchek’s World in Word and Images, and a writer that penned a number of books, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries Saving Millions of Lives. He writes especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”