Chinese State Media Campaign Targets Uyghur Times and Its Founder

More than 10 Chinese state and state-controlled outlets, including Sina, QQ, and 163, have launched coordinated attacks on Uyghur Times and its founder Tahir Imin as part of a broader campaign to discredit the independent Uyghur news Media outlet.

By Arman Uyghur

Dec 1, 2021

More than 10 Chinese state and state-controlled media platforms, including major portals such as Sina, QQ, and 163, the paper, have published coordinated reports attacking Uyghur Times and its founder, Tahir Imin. These reports form part of a broader Chinese state media campaign aimed at discrediting an independent Uyghur news outlet and portraying its editor as a hostile political figure. The campaign appears designed not only to undermine the credibility of Uyghur Times, but also to sow distrust and division between Uyghurs and other Muslim communities.

The propaganda outlet article said :“Publicly available information online shows that the account called UyghurTimes English, described as an “East Turkestan independence” account, was established by a group of “East Turkestan” activists based in Washington, D.C., USA. They claim to be an “independent news organization” and post “fact-based” information on a daily basis. Last year, foreign internet users also investigated and found that behind the account is an operator named Tahir Imin, who, allegedly funded by the U.S. government, lived in Israel for a period of time several years after leaving Xinjiang, before moving to the United States.”

The wave of attacks began after Uyghur Times posted a critical tweet questioning why the Chinese military has never offered Eid greetings to its Uyghur and other Muslim soldiers, in contrast to the Israeli Defense Forces, which publicly extend such greetings to Muslim service members. The now-deleted tweet did not endorse any political position, nor did it express support for Israel. Nevertheless, pro–Chinese Communist Party commentators and state-linked media quickly framed the post as evidence of foreign manipulation, alleging that Uyghur Times was acting as a proxy for Israel.

Soon afterward, Chinese state propaganda outlets and affiliated online commentators initiated what amounted to a coordinated digital manhunt. They examined Tahir Imin’s personal background, highlighting the fact that he pursued postgraduate studies in Israel in 2017, and presented this as proof of alleged foreign control. On this basis, state media advanced the narrative that Israel was directing Imin’s activities and shaping the editorial line of Uyghur Times.

The campaign was further amplified by a number of Western anti-imperialist commentators, including Ben Norton, founder of the controversial, anti-Western outlet The Grayzone, who echoed claims that Uyghur media and activism are instruments of foreign powers.

Such allegations follow a long-standing pattern. For years, Chinese state discourse has accused the Uyghur diaspora movement of being orchestrated by the CIA. More recently, these claims have expanded to include Israel as another supposed sponsor.

At the same time, most Uyghurs in the diaspora have consciously avoided involvement in other global conflicts. With an ongoing genocide in their homeland and countless families facing detention, disappearance, and forced separation, their primary focus remains on documenting abuses and seeking justice for their own people.

It is also important to note a central inconsistency in these accusations: Israel has not publicly challenged China over its treatment of Uyghurs up to now, nor has it taken a leading role in condemning the mass detention and repression in Uyghur homeland. The claim that Israel is directing Uyghur activism therefore lacks any credible political or diplomatic basis. 

Taken together, the attacks on Uyghur Times illustrate a familiar tactic of the Chinese state: portraying independent Uyghur voices as agents of hostile foreign forces in order to delegitimize reporting on human rights abuses and to fracture solidarity between Uyghurs and the wider Muslim world.

Edited by Abdulmuqtedir