Who is Rebiya Kadeer?
Walter Lohman /
The Chinese government is blaming the violence in its west on a woman named Rebiya Kadeer. They are calling her a “an ironclad separatist colluding with terrorists and Islamic extremists.” The Chinese Communist Party has a long and estranged relationship with the truth. And the vilification of Kadeer ranks right up there with their portrayal of Dalai Lama as an “evil splitist.” (In fact, the People’s Daily has called Kadeer a “Uighur Dalai Lama.”)
The government rhetoric is primarily aimed at a domestic audience, intended to stir Han Chinese nationalism as the basis for a legitimacy and unity that communist ideology cannot provide. But in Kadeer’s case, the rhetoric is a two-fer. It is deliberately and cynically aimed at biases and fears in the West. (more…)