A new musical inspired by the U.S. Hollywood blockbuster “La La Land,” which opened in movie theaters in China, is being produced by the Xinjiang government and depicts an idyll of ethnic integration without repression or mass surveillance of the Uighur people.
According to an April 3 report in the British newspaper The Guardian, the Chinese Communist Party is orchestrating a public relations offensive to counter U.S. and Western allegations that the Communist Party has committed genocide against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
With allegations of forced labor involved in cotton production in Xinjiang regaining global attention, major brands, including Nike, have said they will no longer source materials from the region, which Beijing has a very different narrative.
Beijing denies all allegations of mistreatment of Uighur Muslims, replacing them with a recasting of Xinjiang as a haven for social cohesion and economic development, saying it has been freed from years of violent extremism thanks to the state’s well-intentioned intervention.
Overseas blockbusters such as “La La Land” have “inspired Chinese film studios” to produce their own domestic hits, according to a report in the Global Times, the Communist Party’s official media outlet.
But the musical ignores the surveillance cameras and security checks that cover Xinjiang. Although more than half of Xinjiang’s population is Muslim, there is no mention of Islam and no mosques or veiled women.
In one scene, a Uighur man, with a beer in his hand, toasts.
Human rights groups say at least 1 million Uighur Muslims are being held in re-education camps in Xinjiang, where authorities are also accused of forcibly sterilizing women and performing forced labor.
That angered Beijing, which initially denied the existence of the camps and then defended them.
In March, Britain and the European Union joined the United States and Canada in a move to impose sanctions on senior Chinese officials involved in the mass detention of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, the first such joint Western action against Beijing since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.
The Chinese Communist Party immediately countered by blacklisting members of the European Parliament, European diplomats and others.
Last month, the Communist Party also swiftly shut down the Clubhouse app amid heated debate over unauthorized discussions, including on Xinjiang.
A source at the U.S. consulting firm SinoInsider said Beijing “knows that it takes a thousand repetitions of a lie to make it true.
For many Chinese, the messaging seems to be working.
“I’ve been to Xinjiang and the movie is very realistic,” one fan told AFP after seeing “Wings of Song” in Beijing. “People are happy, free and open,” he said. He declined to give his name.
Unrestricted access to Xinjiang for foreign journalists is not possible. This week, BBC News correspondent John Sudworth left China in a hurry for Taiwan, alleging “intimidation” for reporting on conditions on cotton farms in Xinjiang.
Recent Comments