This
week saw a typical example of official accounts of “terrorism” in Xinjiang and
the importance of power in the reproduction of “knowledge”: un-named Chinese officials
from un-named departments spoke anonymously and without any evidence to claim
that Uyghur “terrorists” are training and operating in Syria.
Just to illustrate the point, we would like to announce that we have discovered
that Han Chinese terrorists are training with the Michigan militias under the
command of the HAM (Han Atheist Movement). How do we know this? Well we can’t
tell you but we can assure you that this is a grave threat to the unity of the
nation and social stability. Now these shocking revelations are unlikely to be picked
up by news agencies and instead will be taken as the random, baseless, and concocted
nonsense that they are. Of course, if you are a Chinese official then you have
the power to randomly disseminate your ‘truth’ but if you are a blogger, you are
actually burdened by the need to have evidence! One of the groups allegedly
responsible for this international terrorist threat, the East Turkestan Education and Solidarity Association (ETESA), responded by saying that these
claims are only designed to marginalise Uyghurs in the international community
because they are not a terrorist organisation and have been legally established
in Turkey.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) has yet to respond because even they
don’t know who they are! Thankfully these stories didn’t make too much impact
on the international news but they do indicate that the party-state’s strategy
in speaking to the world about Uyghurs centres on imagining a transnational
terrorist threat.
