The last time I visited #China, I knew it would be the last time. 5 minutes after sitting down with a #Uyghur friend, she was called by her cadre 'minder' questioning her why she was talking to a foreigner. Like so many, we've never heard from her again. I made the choice not to return as a researcher because it endangers people. Or you can go back but you must construct your research in a way that the Chinese government approves and ignore people like my friend who has disappeared. And write about #China like it never happened.

There has been surprise and awe as protestors in China chant “Xi Jinping, stand down” (习近平下台). Yet from our knowledge of power and resistance in authoritarian states, these demands should be expected to emerge sooner or later. 🧵
#ZeroCovidChina #UrumqiFire #ChinaProtests 1/
The late, great Stephen White who taught Post-Communist Politics 101 emphasised that the more personalised an authoritarian system, the more that social discontent will focus on that leader as the sole actor responsible for policy and with power to change course.

Urumchi is not Zhengzhou. I lived there for several years, observing and interviewing around many protests. I want to add some overlooked background to #UrumqiProtest conversation. Many dominant voices on the subject have never been there. 🧵

#Xinjiang #ZeroCovidChina #Uyghurs 1.
@guardian / @Reuters quoted 1 respected political scientist but who does not research the region. Alternatively, many foreign and Uyghur experts who know the city are available, sharing videos and analysis on the capital city of their homeland.

theguardian.com/world/2022/nov…

Six essential books to help understand how the current crisis in the region known as #Xinjiang emerged. These overlooked, multidisciplinary works, published before the current crisis, range from history to anthropology to political science. #Uyghurs #Centralasia #China #Islam Obviously I think you should read my book too! It explains how the goals of #China's ethnic policy shifted from gradual to rapid assimilation, exacerbating insecurity and cycles of violence between Han Chinese, #Uyghurs, and the state in #Xinjiang.

cambridge.org/core/books/sec…

NEW REPORT by @lauratmurphy, @nyrola, and myself uncovers massive networks of forced labour and transfers of Uyghur people managed by the Bingtuan and commanded by the central party-state. An explainer 🧵

#Uyghurs #Xinjiang #China

shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy… 1.

What is the Bingtuan?

The Bingtuan (#Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps) is a state-run corporation, functioning as regional government, paramilitary organisation, prisons bureau, media empire, education system, and one of world’s largest state-run corporations.

How does Xi Jinping command policy in #China? This report analyses the #Xinjiang Papers and new evidence of #Uyghurs mass detention. 🧵

sheffield.ac.uk/seas/news/xinj… 1.

The report analyses Xi’s thinking and the centralised decision-making behind Xinjiang policy, institutional shifts to ensure policy implementation, and the arbitrary nature of mass detention of Turkic-speaking Muslim communities.

Some book reviews! My fieldwork in Urumchi #Xinjiang planned to explore relations between Han, #Uyghurs, & party-state, particularly how urban groups most exposed to party education understand each other and how interactions shape #nationalism #security

cambridge.org/core/product/i… What wasn't planned was 2009 mass violence. Han & #Uyghurs explained violence with narratives familiar from living there previously but crystallised into starker boundaries & insecurity. #China's party-state framed Uyghur identities as security problems, intensifying insecurity.

After the 2009 violence between Han, #Uyghurs, and #Xinjiang’s security organs, #China’s party-state used region-wide compulsory “ethnic unity education” to "defeat separatism." A key text from those classes is now available. What does it tell us? 🧵

xinjiang.sppga.ubc.ca/chinese-source… 1.

The text is hosted on @YXiaocuo ‘s Xinjiang Documentation Project website. Their goal is to uplift survivors’ voices and create a reliable resource to combat state-sponsored erasure of evidence and partisan presentation of the crisis in Xinjiang

xinjiang.sppga.ubc.ca

I reviewed The Xinjiang Papers by @adrianzenz, official document leak from China’s party-state. His argument that targeting of Uyghurs intensified under Xi Jinping’s commands is clearly made, logically sound, and supported with strong evidence. A thread 🧵
uyghurtribunal.com 1.    

Authentication.

I read original documents and would have refused to review this without them. These can’t be released to protect people’s safety....

What have we learned in 11 years since mass violence between Han, #Uyghurs, and the state in #Xinjiang? Since the emergence of internment camps sparked wider interest in the subject, many discussions catalogue incidents of violence and describe how the party-state responded. Considerably less attention is paid to why the state responds this way