Chinese Government Launches Smear Campaign Against Uyghurs in Exile, Including Uyghur Times Founder Tahir Imin

Chinese Government and State-backed media target Uyghur Times and its founder with coordinated propaganda to discredit independent reporting and portray Uyghurs in exile as separatists.

by Uyghur Times Staff

April 13, 2021

The Chinese government has launched a large-scale, multi-faceted propaganda campaign to deny, whitewash, and deflect credible reports and witness testimonies on the Uyghur homeland. This includes state-sponsored press conferences, such as the one titled “新疆维吾尔自治区在京涉疆问题新闻发布,” which were heavily attended and widely covered, yet largely unchallenged by Chinese-controlled media.

According to China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency and China News Service, people’s daily, official website of China’s embassy to U.S. in a report published on April 9 under the headline “Xinjiang Official: Exposing the ‘Databases’ Fabricated by Anti-China Forces and Letting the Truth Be Known to the World,” Xu Guixiang, spokesperson for the People’s Government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, claimed that certain “anti-China forces” had fabricated so-called “Xinjiang Data Project,” “Xinjiang Victims Database,” and “Uyghur Transitional Justice Database.” Xu described these as collecting false “witness testimonies” in an attempt to confuse truth with lies, smear Xinjiang, and deceive the global community.

The Chinese government has also attempted to portray Tahir Imin, the founder of Uyghur Times, as a separatist and an “East Turkistan element” spreading false information about China.

The report further accused American researcher Gene Bunin of establishing the “Xinjiang Victims Database” together with so-called anti-China “experts,” including Darren Byler, Zhao Loulan, Fatima Abduelghafur, and Tahir Imin, whom the article labeled an “East Turkistan element.” It alleged the project had received funding and support from the United States, Australia, and other countries—claims denied by both Gene Bunin and Tahir Imin. The “Uyghur Transitional Justice Database” was said to have been established by Beheitiyar Wumaier, chair of the Norwegian Uyghur Committee under the World Uyghur Congress, with funding from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy.

Xu stated that these databases were part of a coordinated effort by international anti-China organizations to collect so-called “testimonies” intended to discredit Xinjiang and mislead the global public. According to the briefing, such initiatives are designed to fabricate evidence, smear Xinjiang, and distort the truth.

Being publicly labeled by Chinese government agencies as an “East Turkistan element” effectively marks someone as an enemy of the state, making them a primary target.

Tahir Imin said that in retaliation for his work as the founder of Uyghur Times and for speaking to outlets such as Al Jazeera, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and VOA, he has personally lost at least 28 family members to Chinese camps and prisons, including his mother and two brothers, all arrested and imprisoned because of his activities in the United States.