Thread by @joannachiu

CLIP: I attended a talk at @UBC Vancouver by a Chinese official, Yu Jiantou of the @CDRF15, and asked him about detention camps in #Xinjiang. He defended the camps as “vocational training” and said China has different priorities when it comes to human rights. Story coming soon.

@UBC @CDRF15 For context, see this earlier story by colleague @Nuttallreports. The same institute that invited Hu Angang invited Yu yesterday. The UBC-affiliated moderator did not correct the record to clarify the camps are compulsory and have prison-like conditions. thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

In above video, the moderator is UBC Institute of Asian Research fellow Evan Due. Due is a senior adviser to the Chinese government research foundation where Yu is Assistant Secretary General. UBC hasn’t answered questions on whether he was an appropriate choice for moderator.

Event poster (and yes @tomgrundy this is a photo of my computer screen.. who knows how to tweet PDFs?)

Here’s the piece.

Muslim Uighur minorities in the #Xinjiang region of China “lack social and economic opportunities,” explained Yu Jiantou.

So the Chinese leadership “chose the approach to provide vocational educational training to them.”

thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese official defends Xinjiang detention camps for Muslims at UBC Vancouver campus talk thestar.com/vancouver/2019… @starvancouver @TorontoStar #cdnpoli #china

I had attended the event wanting to get a Beijing view on the Belt and Road global infrastructure project. Xinjiang is a key region for China’s trade with Central Asia. I was expecting deflection or no comment and not a defense of the internment camps: thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

The speaker told me the camps were meant for vocational training to help lift Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang out of poverty. He wasn’t “sure if they were compulsory”. The UBC moderator did not correct the facts, and instead moved on to next questions. thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

.@StephanieCarvin says it can be beneficial to hear the Beijing line, but she was “disappointed” with UBC’s handling.

“If someone from the Chinese government came to an event where I was at and denied the camps, I would feel an obligation to correct that” thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

When our newspaper earlier reported on controversy around UBC hosting an academic who allegedly laid the groundwork for internment of Muslims, a professor told @Nuttallreports the decision to host Hu was based on free speech. thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

Meanwhile there are genuine expressions of horror about the camps among UBC China profs. The IAR is building a Xinjiang Documentation Project to collect, preserve, assess and ensure public access to information on the repression in the region. xinjiangdocumentation.sppga.ubc.ca

Timothy Cheek, director of the Institute of Asian Research that hosted the event (and disclaimer: my undergrad thesis supervisor), said he is looking into the issue and he personally “abhors the detention camps and broader repression in Xinjiang.”

These incidents aren’t uncommon. After the latest incident this week, observers like @kolga say Canadian universities have an obligation to avoid providing a “megaphone” for Chinese government propaganda. Thanks for reading: thestar.com/vancouver/2019… #cdnpoli #bcpoli #bced #china

To be fair, Yu gave an assessment of the shortcomings so far of the Belt and Road project. But in China it’s widely understood that for Chinese citizens especially those working for the state, there are clear red lines. It would have been odd if he had condemned Xinjiang camps.

Some asked why I asked about Xinjiang when the topic of the talk was the Belt and Road. Here’s my question and part of Yu’s answer.

Correction of spelling in above tweet. Should be Yu Jiantuo.

UBC’s Evan Due has made a statement telling me Mr. Yu was not in fact defending the camps by calling them vocational centres. Some background on why this Beijing line about “vocational centres” doesn’t reflect even its own internal documents. scmp.com/news/china/pol… @adrianzenz

Statement from @UBC Institute of Asian Research senior fellow and CDRF consultant Evan Due defending Mr. Yu’s comments. Not the kind of thing I want to be reading on Thanksgiving. Yu’s comments are provided in full in above transcripts and video link.

@UBC An audience member at the UBC event compared Xinjiang's detention camps for Muslims to Canada's residential schools. These may have been established over a hundred years ago, but we're still writing about the horrors. By @OmarMosleh @thestaredmonton: thestar.com/edmonton/2019/…