Thread by @JimMillward

Seems to be a new phrase by which CCP (Xi Jinping) describes the relationship of Xinjiang non-Han people to "Zhonghua" (Chinese) identity, maybe first rolled out in Xi's speech after his recent Xinjiang tour: 中华文明是新疆各民族文化的根脉所在 (1/n) gz.gov.cn/xw/jrtt/conten…

In Xi's speech at the 3rd Xinjiang forum in Sept. 2020 (and in other speeches around that time) a different phrase was used: 新疆各民族是中华民族血脉相连的家庭成员, “Every minzu (ethnic group) of Xinjiang is a family-member linked to Chinese (Zhonghua) bloodlines.” 2/n

I pointed out at the time that by evoking "blood" and "family member" this phrase indirectly implied a genetic relationship between the Central Asian peoples now ruled by the CCP and "Zhonghua," i.e. Chinese peoples. 3/n

I don't know if that racialist line has been dropped, but this new one (中华文明 新疆各民族文化的根脉所在 "Chinese [Zhonghua] civilization is the location of the root vein [pulse] of the culture of every minzu in Xinjiang") is still metaphorically biological, if less racial 4/n

Not a very common term, 根脉 genmai (root and vein, or root vein, or root and pulse) is frequently used about culture. For example: 对于一个国家和民族而言，传统是文明之根脉。Or 历史是根，文化是脉 (History is the root, culture is the pulse.) (from Baidu translate eg list) 5/n

Elsewhere in the speech Xi again stresses the new PRC melting pot doctrine: 要铸牢中华民族共同体意识 "must firmly forge consciousness of the Zhonghua collectivity." (I don't think translating this along lines of "sense of community of the Chinese nation" quite gets it: 6/n

The Zhonghua collectivity is asserted as a thing in itself, not a "sense" of something--this community (he says) exists; what needs to be forged is the recognition, consciousness of that existing Chinese community. 7/n

This new conciousness is necessary b/c just few years ago it was not taught that Uyghurs have been "Chinese" for all time. From 2015 CCP changed the textbooks it itself had published ca. 2010. Xi has decreed a new history of XJ, even more Sino-centric than past versions. 7.5/n

Thus there's a lot about history and identity elsewhere in the speech: 要教育引导广大干部群众正确认识新疆历史特别是民族发展史 "must educate and guide broad officials and masses to correctly recognize Xinjiang history, especially history of ethnic development." 8/n

This tells everybody get with the new program: the various minzu of Xinjiang are all Chinese, developed from and as part of what Xi calls the "Zhonghua" (now ubiquitous as generic, ahistorical cultural term equivalent to the western-language term "China") 9/n

There's many more cautions in the speech about historical view, cultural identity, and how that must be promoted and publicized: 构建展现 . . . 新疆同内地各民族交往交流交融历史事实的话语体系和有效载体 (trans. in next) 10/n

"must construct and promulgate the actual discursive system and effective vehicle regarding communications, exchanges and contacts between every minzu of Xinjiang and the heartland." 11/n

Construct a discursive system!!! Xi's been reading Foucault again. 12/n

And in the one place he alludes indirectly to the massive international criticism, Xi calls for this discourse to be widely propagandized internationally in response: 要多层次、全方位、立体式开展涉疆对外宣传，完善“请进来”工作，讲好中国新疆故事。12.5/n

"Must roll out multi-level, omni-directional, three dimensional propaganda about Xinjiang directed abroad, perfect the work of 'inviting in' [bringing selected groups on XJ propaganda tours], and tell the Chinese Xinjiang story well." 13/n

I can remember in the early 2000s, XJ cadres were cautioned against "internationalizing the Xinjiang problem." Well, it's been well and truly internationalized now! The new information agenda is damage control, trying to project a different narrative abroad.

The front in the information war remains active. This is of course an indirect admission that Xi's policies have NOT made a good impression abroad. In fact, the colonial nature of CCP rule in Xinjiang is now widely apparent. So selling XJ remains a top ranked priority. 14/n

Most people in the world five years ago didn't know what Xinjiang was; now they know it as a Chinese colony, whether using that word or not. It is quite remarkable that in what some media have portrayed as Xi's victory lap in XJ, he devotes so many words to 15/n

calling for a narrative about history, culture, identity of XJ's non-Han peoples to be "constructed," internalized by cadres and masses domestically, propagandized to the wider world. 16/n

So get ready for more of that "multi-level, omni-directional, three dimensional propaganda" which PRC does so well: sure to involve smiling natives in costume and those cute foreign Youtube influencers eating noodles on their CCP-paid holidays. (end)

And says the quiet part out loud.