China Seeks African Support for Its Treatment of Muslim Minorities

 The China Africa Project posted on 3 February 2021 a commentary titled "China Launches Full-Scale Media Blitz in Africa to Counter Mounting U.S.-European Pressure on Xinjiang" by Eric Olander. 

 China continues to argue in its messaging with African leaders that its policy towards Uighurs in Xinjiang Region are benefiting local people economically and do not constitute human rights violations as charged by Western countries. Although this argument is increasingly difficult to make, the impact on African leaders is not clear.   

African Support for China's Core Principles

The Spring 2020 issue of Orbis contains an article titled "Evolving Principles and Guiding Concepts: How China Gains African Support for its Core National Interests" by me and Josh Eisenman. This link only offers the abstract. Until I can figure out how to load the sharing mechanism and if you want a PDF copy of the entire article, please send an email to dhshinn@earthlink.net.

Under Xi Jinping, China has packaged its policies using two interrelated guiding concepts, the "Chinese Dream" and "The Community of Shared Future." These concepts represent the conceptual framework that China has created to engage African and other countries as it expands its diplomatic, economic, and security interaction with Africa. Beijing has successfully obtained African support or, at least, acquiescence for its core national interests: Taiwan, Tibet, the mistreatment of Muslim minorities, human rights, South China Sea, and Hong Kong.

The China-Egypt Telcom Relationship

Power 3.0 published on 20 February 2020 an article titled "Egypt and China's Telecoms: A Concerning Courtship" by Allison McManus, Tahrir Institute for the Middle East.

Although much of China's proposed investment in Egypt never materialized, one sector where Chinese companies, especially Huawei, have been successful is telecommunications. Some 82 Chinese telecom firms operate in Egypt, including assistance with surveillance. Cairo has helped identify and detain Uighur Chinese for transfer to "reeducation" facilities in China.

28 African Countries Support China's Policy on Uighurs in Xinjiang

Pass Blue, which provides independent coverage of the UN, posted on 17 November 2019 an article tilted "China Flexes Its Economic Might More Openly at the UN on Human Rights" by Stephanie Fillion.

The article reports that 54 countries submitted a joint declaration at the UN which states "We commend China's remarkable achievements in the field of human rights by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and protecting and promoting human rights through development" while also citing "the challenge of terrorism and extremism" in Xinjiang.

The 28 African countries (more than half of all the signatories) that signed the declaration were Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Nearly all of these countries have serious human rights problems of their own and most are among the most autocratic in Africa.

China Seeks African Support on Policy in Xinjiang Region

Kenya's Daily Nation published on 13 October 2019 an article titled "China Seeks Support from Africa on Uighur Policy" by Aggrey Mutambo.

The article notes that for the first time China has circulated to media houses in Africa documents that lay out China's position on the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang region. This follows a letter orchestrated by China and signed by 22 African UN ambassadors in New York defending China's policy. The Kenyan ambassador did not sign the letter.

China Silences African Columnist

Foreign Policy posted on 14 September 2018 an article titled "China Is Buying Africa Media's Silence" by Azad Essa.

A weekly columnist for South Africa's Independent Media, in which Chinese state-linked media hold a 20 percent stake, wrote a negative column on China's policy on Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. Independent Media refused to run the column online and canceled the journalist's weekly column.

China's Response to Terrorism

The U.S. Center for Naval Analysis published in June 2016 a 186 page report titled "China's Response to Terrorism" by Murray Scot Tanner and James Bellacqua.

While there are only about a dozen references to Africa, this is an excellent compilation of the terrorist threat faced by China and its response both domestically and internationally. It contains the following chapters:

--An Overview of China and Terrorism

--Beijing's Perceptions of an Evolving Terrorist Threat

--China's Policies toward Counterterrorism

--China's Counterterrorism Bureaucracy

--International Cooperation

--U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation