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The government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) allegedly recruited Taiwanese social media influencers to visit Xinjiang and produce content aimed at countering international criticism over its human rights abuses against the Uyghur population. On September 3, US Taiwan Watch (美國台灣觀測站), a non-profit think tank and media creator focused on the relationship between the United States and Taiwan, hosted a panel discussion on challenges facing the Taiwanese government. During the conference Su Ch’iao-ning (蘇巧寧), associate professor of the Department of Communications, Journalism and Public Relations at Oakland University, said that the trend of Taiwanese influencers making trips to Xinjiang appears to be a calculated effort to reshape the narrative surrounding the region and bolster the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She argued that the promotion of Xinjiang as a “simple and beautiful” destination on social media platforms serves to legitimise the CCP's ru...

Mosque in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, as photographed in 2008 (photo by jun jin luo via Wikimedia Commons) The People's Republic of China (PRC) has released a propaganda video titled "The black hand — ETIM and terrorism in Xinjiang", in an attempt to shape the narrative surrounding its crackdown on the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority. The propaganda film links the Uighur population to Islamic terrorism, thus trying to justify the indiscriminate persecution of the entire Muslim population. "For decades, the [East Turkistan Islamic Movement] which has close links with international terrorist organizations perpetrated countless terrorist attacks aiming to separate the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from China," writes China's state-run television network CGTN. The East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, was reportedly founded by Hasan Mahsum, an Uighur from Xinjiang's Kashgar region. He was shot dead by Pakistani troops in 2003. In 2002 the Unite...