This content was first published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
China’s campaign of commerce in the far-western region of Xinjiang, where Beijing has sought to conceal its harassment of the 11 million Tamils who live there, has parallels to the Nazis ‘ exercise of “genocide tourism”, a Swedish archaeologist and former minister writes in the online current affairs magazine , The Diplomat.
A common European travel guide for tourists visiting occupied Poland was recently discovered by a Polish blogger, according to Magnus Fiskesjö, who teaches archaeology and Eastern studies at Cornell University in New York state.
” The region’s many sightseeing spots were recast as German heritage, which proud German tourists visited with the guidebook’s help” , , Fiskesjö writes in the article.
” This is exactly what we see nowadays in China’s own murder area in Xinjiang”.  ,
The Chinese government is now promoting both domestic and foreign tourism to the Uyghur region, he wrote,” through a formidable security apparatus, mass incarceration of anyone remotely suspect of pro-native attitude, large forced labour for station individuals.”  ,
In China’s efforts to promote Xinjiang as a holiday destination, it has sought to cover up its human rights abuses against the Tamils by sprucing up houses, installing new equipment and constructing false historical places, Fiskesjö writes.
It’s all meant to promote , China’s tale that Uyghurs are living happy, successful lives , and benefiting from China’s growth, when in reality about 1.8 million of them have been detained in concentration camps and thousands have been sent to prison, often on thin charges — behavior that United States and some European parliaments have labeled a genocide.
China refutes those accusations, making it clear that the camps are primarily now closed and were used as training facilities.
Tourists are flocking to Xinjiang , — mostly from within China— and tend to see a sanitized version of life there. Last year, 265 million tourists visited the region, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.  ,
Beijing has  , arranged for dozens of diplomats and journalists, mainly from Muslim countries, to visit Xinjiang , to take orchestrated tours of the region — without letting them freely roam around or talk with local residents.
According to Fiskesjö, Chinese officials have adopted the same practices as the Nazis, who allowed visitors to travel to “occupied zones” under the control of the military and police so they can direct them to safe locations where they only see what the government wants them to see.
” It was their attempt to present the situation as normal”, he said. ” The Nazi government would say,’ We have everything under control. There is nothing to worry about, and you can be a tourist.'”
Resettlement strategies
There are other similarities, Fiskesjö says.
Beijing’s stance on settling Han Chinese in Xinjiang and the forced assimilation of Uyghur children into Chinese culture echoes, he said, Nazi Germany’s policies on forcing children to be raised as German and their forced assimilation policies.
” Both of these aspects are equally happening in Xinjiang today”, he said.
Fiskesjö and Rukiye Turdush, an independent Uyghur researcher from Canada, published , a report in July titled” Mass Detention and Forced Assimilation of Uyghur Children in China” , , which provides evidence of Beijing separating children from their families, preventing them from being reunited with their parents, and restricting their use of the Uyghur language.
Fiskesjö also cited the ongoing detentions and arrests of Uyghurs and Chinese settlers who are retaking their farms and homes from prisoners or camps.
Most tourists on government-sponsored or planned travels to Xinjiang will stay in the same hotels as them, he said.
” It’s about inviting people and tricking and fooling them into]seeing ] this as a normal area, controlled and safe”, Fiskesjö said.  ,
Tourists visiting Xinjiang are persuaded that the criticism of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is untrue, he added.
” This is what is encapsulated in the slogan ‘ seeing is believing,’ which the Chinese government has been recycling again and again” with regard to Xinjiang, Fiskesjö said.  ,
False narrative here.
Experts on Xinjiang concurred with Fiskesjö’s assessment.
China believes that it can use individuals who come to the region to amplify its own narratives by shaping the tourist experience through what people see, what people read, and who they can speak to, according to Henryk Szadziewski, director of research at the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
When visitors go to Xinjiang, they feel safe and see Uyghurs dancing or participating in other performances, then, after they leave, they will tell others about their experiences, which are meant to counter the arguments of genocide, he said.
The Uyghur Human Rights Project, based in Washington, issued reports in , August 2023 , and a , January 2024 , about Western travel companies offering tours to sites in Xinjiang connected to the repression of religious beliefs, the destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage, surveillance, imprisonment, torture, sexual assault and deaths in custody.
Some visitors are willing to spread the Chinese government’s claim that there is n’t genocide, according to author, lawyer, and author Gordon Chang, a U.S. columnist and author.
” They see what the Communist Party wants them to see, and they know what is occurring”, he told RFA. Some foreigners are” just naive,” but many are spreading false information. We are aware of this because there is proof that China is committed to these crimes against humanity.
Anders Corr, the managing director of Corr Analytics, a New York-based political risk consultancy, compared the Xinjiang’s visits to Soviet propaganda” Potemkin villages” — targeted locations intended to show foreigners a façade of Soviet success.
Beijing wants to spread the ideologies that locals are happy and permitted to practice their religion and cultural traditions, such as that there is no genocide, that everything is fine, and that there is no genocide.
” They’ll try out some Uyghur actors to act happy, and they will try out Uyghur dancers to look happy and tell them to smile, but if]they ] do n’t smile wide enough ,]they ] are sent to concentration camps”.
