ONE WEEK LATER: CHINESE NETIZENS INTEREST IN XINJIANG

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 002022

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM EINT CH

SUBJECT: ONE WEEK LATER: CHINESE NETIZENS INTEREST IN XINJIANG
REMAINS HIGH

Summary
--------------


1. The recent riots and ethnic tensions in Xinjiang remained widely
discussed topics on major Chinese news portals, Internet forums and
microblogging platforms in China in the week since July 8.
Widespread censorship was evident through the continued blocking of
many popular social discussion platforms and frequent deletion of
posts. A number of blogs featuring longer commentary pieces
remained accessible. Commentary included criticism of Chinese
government ethnic policies and the government's handling of the
unrest. Many netizens continued to express skepticism about
government stances. Turkey, foreign media, and Rabiya Kadeer were
widely criticized for their "ulterior motives." Calls for ethnic
unity and national harmony, often echoing Chinese government
statements, were widespread. End Summary.

Popular Discussion Platforms Remain Censored
--------------


2. Discussion of unrest in Xinjiang continued to be a popular topic
on the Chinese Internet. Nevertheless, access to searches about
Xinjiang, Uighurs, Urumqi, and violence remained filtered and the
websites Fanfou.com (the Chinese version of Twitter),Facebook and
Youtube, remained completely blocked. Twitter itself remained
accessible. Comments and threads about the recent riots were
observed to have been deleted from both liberal and conservative
websites including PChome, Qiangguo, Sina, and Cat898.


Commentary Moves to Blogosphere and Deeper Examination of History
-------------- --------------


3. Netizens on traditionally liberal websites remained skeptical of
government explanations; one commentator noted "the truth has still
not come forth," another said, "China's elite and educated maintain
deep silence on this matter, why?" In general, posts tended to be
longer, with varied explanations citing historical and other factors
to explain ethnic tensions. The bulk of commentary moved to
respected blogs such as Bullog, De-sci, and 1510, while most of
Twitter postings were dedicated to reposted recent news items from
Urumqi.

Netizen Reaction to Turkey, Foreign Media and Kadeer
-------------- --------------


4. Bulletin boards which traditionally include a wide range of
views, such as Cat898 and Qiangguo, featured angry critiques of
comments characterizing the unrest as "genocide" by Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Erdogan. "Who is Turkey to tell us about human
rights?" and "Turkey will pay for its brazen arrogance," were
typical comments from these threads. There was limited reaction to
reports of Al Qaeda threats against Chinese interests in North
Africa, but one conservative commentator rhetorically asked, "China,
are you prepared to face the intensified fire of Muslim hate?"


5. Netizens commented that foreign journalists had been provided
unrestricted access in Xinjiang and widely critiqued foreign media
reports, particularly Wall Street Journal articles, as "false" and
"confusing black and white." Foreign media was described as
"biased" and "intentionally misleading," and even "supporters of the
terrorists." Rabiya Kadeer continued to be widely criticized and
compared to the Dalai Lama. Calls for ethnic unity and national
unity were widespread in all forums and featured parroted government
expressions like "Unity amongst different ethnic groups will make
the country prosperous."

Critique of Government
--------------


6. Bloggers tended to be more measured in placing blame for the
violence and more introspective in their analysis, with some linking
the riots to policy failures by the government. One widely
circulated essay detailed historical trends and called for specific
reforms, specifically: learning from the experience of other
societies in dealing with ethnic problems; abolishing preferential
ethnic policies; establishing true equality among races; reforming
governance and increasing the independence of autonomous regions;
and increasing development of poor rural areas. Blogs and
commentators explored different social and cultural hurdles to
ethnic unity and ways to facilitate interactions.


7. Posts on traditionally conservative sites expressed anger toward
Uighurs, with one characterizing the violence as a "Chinese 9/11."
Criticism was directed at "unequal" and "inherently discriminatory"
policies granting preferential treatment to minorities. As seen on
the blogs, a number of postings on these sites also attributed the

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unrest to government failures. Some questioned the government's
judgment when "such policies lead to terrorist tendencies." One
popular commentator argued, "this disaster stems from the
government's inability to strictly rule the country by law."
Discussion of government compensation to families of the victims
included the comment that "corrupt officials will 'eat' (chi) the
money up, anyway."


Goldberg