(1/11) Thread 🧵 to explain how the speech by IPC President Andrew Parsons at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Paralympics is censored in China to remove any reference to the Olympic Truce. Parsons starts with “Tonight I want, I must begin with a message of peace…” (2/11) “…As the leader of an international organisation with inclusion at its core, where diversity is celebrated and difference embraced…” This entire opening line is left untranslated. At this point, the Chinese voice-over cuts in.

For research purposes, here is an (incomplete) list of foreign vloggers who have made videos about the Xinjiang/Cotton debate. Most of them are on Chinese platform bilibili, many have YouTube channels too. (1) 歪果仁研究协会 (feat. Raz Gal-Or aka 高佑思): (1.1) CGTN‘s interview of Raz Ga-Or. The Chinese video description claims journalists had a 'chance encounter' (偶遇) with Gal-Or while reporting in Xinjiang. Any one familiar with Chinese media knows what 'chance encounter' actually means:

(1) Many will disagree with me, but I'm cautiously against using the term 'genocide' to describe the situation in Xinjiang, for both conceptual and practical reasons. I'm not trying to downplay the gravity of the issue here, but... (2) re-education schools are a modern variant in a long tradition of labour camps in China, which remains integral to the so-called 'thought work'. The 'rectification' of minds is a core component of the CCP's control over the population, and it has been associated with cruelty.

微博上推荐的新疆研究入门书目被限流了，在这里做一个thread存档： (1) James Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang (2021) 只读一本的话不妨从这本开始，近500页，从史前写到21世纪，方方面面事无巨细的通史。我读的是2007年版，内容截至2001年。今年的修订版更新到了2020年，希望有机会能读到。也推荐关注@JimMillward 老师的推，常有重要信息转发

My observation is exactly the opposite to @vwang3 & @HernandezJavier Nothing has changed. There is no generational awakening among Chinese youth. The crisis did not change us, rather, we view the crisis through our own lens and it reinforces our prejudices nytimes.com/2020/03/28/wor… If u observe Weibo and WeChat close enough, you’ll see that nothing has changed. The Chinese journalists challenging censorship are the same brave journalists who have been dancing with shackles, the official media whitewashing the tragedy are same that have lied to us for years;

1: I mean, seriously, if Wang Liqiang’s claim of being a student of oil painting from an obscure Anhui uni is true, then he had no proper training in spying, no language skills, no political vetting (starting from trivial domestic tasks), then he was suddenly sent to HK (ha?!) 2: How many college grads got to work in HK straight after graduation? Then he got recruited in 2015 because he could teach oil painting (seriously?) then immediately got involved in one of most important intel operations ever in HK (one that requires utmost trust & experience)

Travelled in Xinjiang for 9 days, the landscapes are amazing, so are the hospitality of the locals, but the most impressive is no doubt the omnipresence of the security apparatus, such as mobile roadblocks like this: Everywhere u go, u see security checks, CCTV cameras, facial recognition machines, barbed wire fences, roadblocks, 'convenience' police stations, roadside checkpoints, police officers on patrol and people with a red 'security volunteer' (安全员) badge on their upper arms.