The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has vehemently opposed the current social media spread of propaganda movies featuring East Turkistan Uyghur dancers performing in Paris and Budapest’s key squares.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is attempting to conceal the ongoing Uyghur genocide and create a false sense of freedom and cultural vibrancy in the area by staging these performances under the pretense of cultural exhibitions, according to the WUC’s release.
“These Uyghur artists who were brought from East Turkistan are only helping China spread its propaganda in the West,” stated Turgunjan Alawdun, president of the WUC. Despite continuous reports of mass violations and genocide, the Chinese government is trying to improve its image,” the WUC release stated.
European spectators witnessed the featured artists, a well-known East Turkistani state-sponsored group, singing and dancing to traditional Uyghur tunes. These performances are extremely regulated and planned by the CCP to propagate the false narrative that Uyghurs are living freely and practicing their culture unhindered; they are not authentic manifestations of cultural pride or freedom.
The WUC statement claimed that although the CCP presents Uyghur dancers overseas, it still imprisons a great number of Uyghur artists, thinkers, and cultural leaders domestically, criminalizing the exact culture it purports to promote internationally.
There have been previous examples of this type of propaganda. As part of its global deception campaign to evade international criticism of its crimes against humanity, China has hosted similar cultural exhibits in Turkey, several Arab nations, and other places. Similar propaganda operations have been documented, such as the time the Chinese embassy in Geneva held picture exhibitions featuring Uyghurs singing and dancing without mentioning widespread abuses.
According to a WUC release, the World Uyghur Congress urges governments, civil society, and media outlets to see these incidents for what they are: propaganda tools that conceal the reality of repression, internment, and forced assimilation in East Turkistan and take advantage of Uyghur culture under state control.