Thread by @fryan

If you spent any time on China-watching Twitter in 2021, you probably came across these two women.

Party-state media, Chinese diplomats & foreign vloggers tried to make out they were just an ordinary account.

We took a closer look & found out that wasn't quite right. 🧵

The women, who introduce themselves in the above video as 'Elder Guli' & 'Younger Guli', two 'Uyghur sisters from Xinjiang', featured in the ‘Story of Xinjiang by Guli’ (SOXBG) set of accounts on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok.

All of those platforms are blocked in China.

Actually, both women worked for a Chengdu-based agency, the name of which translates to ‘Chengdu Grey Man Culture Communications’ (成都灰灰侠文化传播有限公司)—a company heavily involved in Xinjiang-related propaganda work.

Here they are in a 'Chengdu Grey Man' recruitment ad:

The agency builds up accounts with ethnic minority influencers & then strikes deals with brands & organisations to promote their messages via the accounts.

They even turn ordinary people into internet influencers—which is what they did with this Xinjiang government official.

We found this procurement notice showing 'Chengdu Grey Man' won a Ұ996,000 bid from Shayar County’s Culture, Sports, Radio, Television & Tourism Bureau to turn Renagul Rahman (热娜古丽·热合曼), an official from the bureau, into an influencer on Douyin & other video platforms.

Here's Renagul Rahman after 'Chengdu Grey Man' transformed her into an internet influencer.

Rahman now has 868k followers on Douyin. Occasionally, Chinese foreign ministry officials tweet out her videos.

Here's one that was posted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying:

https://twitter.com/SpokespersonCHN/status/1541792535798026240

The same thing happened with a video featuring 'Elder Guli' before the SOXBG set of foreign accounts were created.

In March 2021, Chinese foreign ministry spox @zlj517 tweeted a video that featured 'Elder Guli'.

But the video was missing some crucial final frames.

https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1371655218383908867

The final frames of the complete video reveal that it was ‘co-presented’ by the Information Office of the International Department of the CCP Central Committee & the Xinjiang Cyberspace Administration (a local bureau of China’s chief internet regulator & censor).

'Elder Guli', whose real name is Hurshidem Ablikim, featured in several videos produced by Chengdu Grey Man that were commissioned by the party-state.

When ZLJ tweeted that video of her, she was the only influencer behind the SOXBG domestic accounts.

Before 'Younger Guli' ever arrived on the scene, 'Elder Guli's online success had already led to awards & interviews with Xinjiang Daily, China Nation magazine, People's Daily & Cosmo .

Her propaganda videos were mainly used domestically, but English-language versions of some of the videos were also created in order to target global audiences.

Soon after ZLJ's tweet, the SOXBG foreign accounts were created & 'Elder Guli' was joined by 'Younger Guli'.

The "sisters" featured in a few videos together to create the impression they were a duo but in reality, 'Younger Guli' had replaced 'Elder Guli'.

'Elder Guli' started making videos for the domestic market with Ding Zhu, a young Tibetan woman who works for 'Chengdu Grey Man'.

...while 'Younger Guli' started churning out English-language videos for the foreign market in which she parroted CCP talking points & directly challenged foreign media reports about human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

She also took part in the 'A Date With China' propaganda tour of Xinjiang that we covered in our previous report 'Borrowing Mouths to Speak on Xinjiang'.

Here she is coaxing German influencer Patrick Köllmer into criticising foreign media coverage of Xinjiang.

https://twitter.com/fryan/status/1470614717336993796

'Younger Guli' struggled to keep her story straight when she was asked by party-state media worker Li Jingjing & Canadian vlogger Daniel Dumbrill why she'd decided to become an influencer.

Having such an active presence on a Western social media platform is highly unusual for young Uyghur women, & ordinarily would be fraught with danger.

So, naturally many ppl questioned the authenticity of the SOXBG accounts, notably anti-CCP YouTubers @serpentza & @laowhy86

It turns out they were right to be suspicious. Twitter suspended the @XinjiangGuli account in late May 2021.

It appears that 'Chengdu Grey Man' shut down the YouTube & TikTok accounts.

The Instagram account pivoted to a new brand 'xinjiangtibet' featuring 'Younger Guli' & Ding Zhu.

There's a lot more detail about the 'Story of Xinjiang by Guli' saga in our new @ASPI_ICPC report 'Frontier Influencers: The new face of China's propaganda'

aspi.org.au/report/frontie…

The amazing cover art is by the brilliant @badiucao✨

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