DISINFO: Claims about repression and concentration camps in China are exaggerations aiming to stop its influence
SUMMARY
If the moment comes to pressure China, let’s say that there are concentration camps as if it was the Jewish Holocaust. Let’s increase figures and lie with the data, and make claims based in high school-like studies to talk about repression, because Beijing is bothersome and its influence must be stopped.
RESPONSE
Contrary to the claim, serious human rights' violations in China, especially in the region of Xinjiang, where the existence of concentration camps has been denounced, are not exaggerated and lies aiming to stop Chinese influence but a reality backed by a wealth of evidence, including satellite images, testimonies of victims, research by experts and activist groups and leaked internal documents. There is ongoing debate on whether these crimes against the Uyghur minority fit into the legal term of genocide, as the Parliaments of Canada and The Netherlands have officially stated, but there is no doubt about their severity. By affirming that these charges are exaggerated or lies made up in order to pressure China, this disinformation narrative aims to deflect China’s responsibility for these human rights violations.
See similar examples in our database, such as claims that the US will use Uyghur jihadists against China, that the West is trying to eliminate Russia as a geopolitical actor under the pretext of ‘human rights’, or that there is no repression in Russia.
This disinformation message appeared in the same TV programme as the claims that “Human rights are a Trojan horse in the West’s hybrid war” and that “Sanctions are whitewashed under beautiful terms but they are merely illegal actions”.