Editor’s note for Monday, October 11, 2021
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn. Today: The AP reports that "Beijing is slackening its grip on Xinjiang after a brutal mass detention campaign, but fear remains pervasive."
My thoughts today:
โThe barbed wire is almost gone. So are the armored personnel carriers. Young Uyghur men are back on the streets. Beijing is slackening its grip on Xinjiang after a brutal mass detention campaign, but fear remains pervasive.โ
This is according to Dake Kang, reporting from Xinjiang for the Associated Press. โUyghur activists will hate [Kangโs report] for not fitting their agenda, as will the tankie trolls,โ commented the person behind the Xinjiang Victims Database: โBut it’s the truth.โ
Other aspects of Chinaโs Xinjiang policies are changing too: The Communist Party has, according to the Wall Street Journal, โmoved subtly but decisively to make cultural assimilation the central tenet of its policy for managing minority populations nationwide.โ
This is a whole different approach from the Soviet style idea of encouraging ethnic minorities to celebrate their own identities as part of a big Communist happy family.
Our word of the day is change the status quo (ๆนๅ็ฐ็ถ gวibiร n xiร nzhuร ng).
The China Project A.M. has a new look: Our 2-minute morning overview of business news has been redesigned to focus on two key topics a day. Click here to see todayโs issue, and here to subscribe to this newsletter.
Upcoming events you might be interested in:
- October 13โ14: China Instituteโs annual Executive Summit: The View From China. Use code CIFriends to save half on tickets.
- October 22: Implications of the New U.S.-China Trade Policy for U.S. Business, a The China Project online discussion.
- Only six days left to take advantage of the BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE Day 2 tickets special for the NEXTChina conference. Be sure to reserve your spot now!
โJeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
