The Real Roots of Xinjiang Terror -- Subtitles (Raw WebVTT)

WEBVTT

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♪ (Intro Music) ♪

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(James Corbett): On October 28, 2013,

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an SUV carrying three passengers
crashed into a crowd

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of people waiting outside the gate
of the Forbidden City,

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across from the infamous Tiananmen
Square in the heart of Beijing.

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All three inside the car
were killed in the subsequent fire,

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along with two bystanders in the crowd.

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38 others were injured.

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Although not the most spectacular terror
attack in the world in recent years,

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the scene of flames and carnage under
the watchful gaze of Chairman Mao,

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in the shadow of the
heavily-guarded Tiananmen Square,

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was as unmistakable to the
Chinese population

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as the smoking ruins of the Pentagon
was to the America population.

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This was,

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or was intended to be taken as,

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an attack on the Chinese homeland.

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It was not long before the incident
was blamed on Muslim separatists

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from the country's northwestern
Xinjiang province,

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China's largest administrative district,

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and a geostrategic area
that shares 2,800 kilometers of border

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with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and
Kazakhstan.

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As such, the government was quick to
claim that the incident represented

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a bold new escalation in China's
ongoing struggle

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with its restive Muslim population,

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part of the ethnic Uyghur minority.

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Since then, two mass murder incidents
involving knife-wielding masked men,

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later identified as members of the
East Turkestan Islamic Movement,

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have drawn further attention to the issue.

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(Male Reporter): A group of men

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-- perhaps even one woman --

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went into this train station

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late into the evening here in Kunming

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and started hacking at people
waiting in the line to get tickets

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and in other parts of the station.

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The police were deployed to the area.

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Four people, they say, were killed:

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four suspects killed,
one suspect injured,

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who is the woman I describe.

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There really were these horrific images

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coming out on social media
late into the night

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-- and some of them deleted
subsequently --

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of pools of blood and dead bodies

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lying strewn across the Kunming
train station,

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this large train station here
in the far southwest of China, John.

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A blast has occurred at a railway
station in Ürümqi,

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the capital of northwest China's
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

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Government sources said details

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about the blast and casualties

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are unclear at this moment.

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Now ambulances and police cars
have rushed to the scene.

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Police have cordoned off all entrances
to the square of the station,

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and a police source said that
train services

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have been suspended at the station.

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As Pepe Escobar,

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geopolitical analyst and frequent
BoilingFrogsPost.com contributor,

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explained last week on
<i>The Corbett Report</i>,

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the Uyghurs are a persecuted minority in
the country's untamed west, who find

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few opportunities for advancement in
China's mainstream society,

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dominated by the ethnic majority
Han Chinese.

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The problem is,
there's no political process

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-- logic --
behind all this.

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They are... they feel that they are being

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-- which is, I would say,
90 percent true --

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they are being invaded, decimated.

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And there's a sort of slow-motion
cultural genocide

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of the Uyghurs all over Xinjiang.

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And not only in those Silk Road

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-- Northern Silk Road, Southern
Silk Road --

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routes in the desert,

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around the Taklamakan Desert:
in the big cities, as well.

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In Kashgar, where the Chinese have a
<i>very</i> controversial project

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to raze the old Kashgar,
old downtown Kashgar

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-- which is amazing.

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It's one of the most extraordinary places
all over Eurasia,

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where they have that famous
Sunday market,

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where you have not only Uyghurs

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but Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs:
people from all over the region,

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from the Hindu Kush, from the Pamirs,
from the Tian Shan Mountains;

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you name it: they go there
to sell their wares.

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It is... Uyghurs, of course,
it is a heavily Muslim population,

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but it's not a Wahhabi-style Islam at all.

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They are relatively tolerant

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compared to the Wahhabis, for instance.

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There is not a heavy infiltration

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of Wahhabi-style missionaries
in that region.

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It is an economic, political, and
cultural problem

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which the Chinese don't know
how to solve.

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First of all, because they consider
the Uyghurs

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-- let's put it bluntly --

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an inferior race;

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so they should be ruled by the
Han Chinese,

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and they should be incorporated
into this great

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western migration and
development project in China.

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Uyghur disenfranchisement is
played upon

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to foment Islamic radicalism
and political separatist sentiment.

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The East Turkestan Islamic Movement,

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seeking to wrest Xinjiang from
China's control,

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offers a number of parallels to the
shadowy al-Qaeda terrorist organization,

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including a mysterious leader
living in a secret mountain base

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in Pakistan's lawless border region, and

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-- as FBI whistleblower and
<i>Boiling Frogs Post</i> founder

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Sibel Edmonds revealed
in last year's series on Gladio B --

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direct support from NATO-associated
Gladio operatives

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seeking to destabilize a
geostrategic region

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in an ongoing, under-the-radar war

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for control of Central Asia.

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This is extremely important.

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Again, Xinjiang: Muslim population.

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And they are referred to...

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-- in Turkey, they don't call them
Xinjiang.

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It's "[East] Turkestan,"

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[East] Turkestan.
They speak Turkic dialect.

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Guess what?

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"Up there? A great place!"

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"Imagine, they get their independence: "

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"We can have our little mini base there!"

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"You know how close we are to China?"

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I mean, on one hand you can say
"Yeah, there's Taiwan out there."

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Well, this is going to be even
more important than Taiwan!

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And then, look again: the other important
strategic location for Xinjiang,

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-- for [East] Turkestan,
a.k.a. Uyghuristan --

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You look out there: you see Pakistan;
you see Afghanistan.

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This is a very important region.

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This has been a very important
region, prize,

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for the United States, for the West.

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We've been...
We've been doing a <i>lot</i> of things there.

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Every time you hear...

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-- at least when I was working there,

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during this period that
FBI was investigating these...

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-- not operations there, but people here:
the criminals in the US

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who <i>carried out</i> the operations there.

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Those terrorist attacks:

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they were orchestrated

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from a long distance.

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You go to Turkey;

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Then, from Turkey, you go to Brussels;

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to England;

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and then you go to the United States.
So, all the orchestration:

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it's not some minorities or some Muslims
get together, suddenly they go and...

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It doesn't happen.

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It didn't happen that way,

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at least during that period.

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(James): Western support for the
Xinjiang terrorists is not difficult to spot,

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and includes the fact that the East
Turkestan government-in-exile,

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led by Anwar Yusuf Turani,

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is based in Washington, DC;

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has spoken at the National Press Club;

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met with President Clinton during
his administration;

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and received explicit offers of support
from President Bush

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and the National Endowment for
Democracy-funded

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Uyghur World Congress:

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a German-based organization
with a Sweden-based spokesman,

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Dilxat Raxit, that Central Asia
analyst Christoph Germann

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told <i>The Corbett Report</i> last week

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asks as the Western media's go-to man

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for any and all stories about the region.

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He's probably the most-quoted person

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when it comes to any incident in Xinjiang

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which involves the Uyghur minority.

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I mentioned earlier

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the <i>Radio Free Europe/
 Radio Liberty</i> CIA propaganda organ;

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and there's also the
<i>Radio Free Asia</i>

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-- which is the equivalent for the
Uyghurs, you could call it.

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And they report...
a lot of their reports are a lot of...

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often sourced on the
World Uyghur Congress

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and statements by Dilxat Raxit.

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But he's also cited by our
mainstream media.

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If you look at Reuters or AP,
doesn't matter:

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almost all reports about terrorist attacks
in China, in Xinjiang,

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have the same structure.

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They start by mentioning the attack
and what happened.

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Then, they try to frame it within
a certain context,

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which seems...

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which tries to paint, to portray
the attacks

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as inevitable consequences
of government repression.

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And then they have this guy, Dilxat Raxit,

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who confirms this by bringing
in his expertise about the subject

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-- although he's based in Sweden,
and he usually doesn't even know

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what happened in Xinjiang earlier
today, when he's asked.

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And after the latest terrorist attack
in Ürümqi,

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the capital of Xinjiang,

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he talked to Reuters within hours
of the attack,

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before any details had become known
out of China.

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And he told them basically,

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"Yes, this was the consequence
of government repression,"

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"and such incidents could happen
again at any time."

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That was his statement;

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and that was picked up by the
Chinese media,

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and they were very outraged
about this statement.

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The incidents so far are by no means

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massive or spectacular enough

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to fundamentally change the
course of Chinese society

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or bring about Xinjiang's independence,

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but they are serving
a number of purposes.

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For the West, the attacks help take
the battle for control of Central Asia

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directly into the Chinese homeland,

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and help destabilize a region that,
as part of President Xi's

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New Silk Road Corridor
of pipelines and trade routes,

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is of increasing economic
importance to Beijing.

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But Beijing, too, gains from the attacks
in the same way that

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authoritarian power structures always
benefit from attacks and atrocities:

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by making the formerly impossible
appear probable.

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As Li Wei,

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a terrorism expert at the China Institutes
of Contemporary International Relations,

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told the Chinese government
mouthpiece <i>Global Times</i> last week,

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Beijing is now openly mulling new
anti-terror legislation

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that some are calling China's Patriot Act,

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and many analysts are expecting
to openly target the Uyghur population.

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Given that the government is
already increasing

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its network of informants
in the region,

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with such programs as offering
cash rewards

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for those who inform on neighbors
with too much facial hair,

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it is questionable whether formal
terror legislation is even needed at all.

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In the end, as with so many of
these contrived geopolitical conflicts,

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the only people who clearly lose
are the Uyghur people themselves,

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whose economic and political
marginalization seem set

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to increase from here.

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In the great irony of global geopolitics,

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this will itself create a greater pool
of disenfranchised youth

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to draw upon for future terror attacks,

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thus perpetuating a descending cycle
of chaos and violence.

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And sadly, the only plausible way out
of this,

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a plan for bringing about greater
opportunities

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for the Uyghur people to engage
in China's ongoing economic miracle,

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is so far off the political radar

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that it can't be found on anyone's map.

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♪ (Theme Music) ♪

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(James [voice-over]):
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00:11:43.792 --> 00:11:45.422
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