This was reflected in the address delivered by the Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2022 sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC), and its advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) this week.
Slogans from an address to parliament by Xi — including “cultural nourishment” and the “consciousness of the whole of the Chinese nation” — were immediately promoted by pro-government representatives from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), drawing scorn from the Uyghur diaspora, reported the Radio Free Asia.
Dilnar Abdullah, an ethnic Uyghur dancer and a CPPCC representative is being used by the Chinese authorities to promote the “consciousness of the unity of the Chinese nation”. She is also working to assimilate Chinese culture into school education in Xinjiang.
This is an old and familiar tactic used by the Chinese government to promote the adoption of Chinese culture in Xinjiang. Statements by Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, U.S.-based vice chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) tell the same story.
“The Chinese government uses them, so of course, they champion ethnic unity,” he said. “What they’re calling cultural nourishment here is assimilation by means of Chinese culture.”Some Uyghurs have become a puppet for the Chinese regime. They have become government mouthpieces. Kokbore called Dilnar and the other Chinese government appointees “puppets”.
We can say she is a tool of theirs. If they tell her to do something, she does it. In this way, the Chinese government can say they’re doing things that Uyghurs themselves want,” he added.
For years, Chinese authorities have subjected Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang to arbitrary arrests and detentions in internment camps, physical abuse, and restrictions on their religious practices and culture in what the United States and legislatures of several other Western countries say amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity.