Xinjiang documentary tests Western media’s collective blindness

The third documentary on the anti-terrorism fight in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was aired on Friday morning with a number of video clips concerning the region’s terrorist activities revealed for the first time.

It has caused heated discussions among Chinese netizens, with many expressing their gratitude for those people who made sacrifices to ensure peace and stability in Xinjiang.

The near-one-hour documentary, titled Tianshan Still Standing: Memories of Fighting Terrorism in Xinjiang, was the third episode aired by CGTN since last December. The previous episodes examined the region’s anti-terrorism work and the terrorists threatening Xinjiang: the East Turkistan Islamic Movement.

The latest episode has three parts and tells the stories of those police officers who sacrificed themselves in the fight against terrorists, with interviews from civilian victims that survived terrorist attacks, and examines the region’s front lines of fighting terrorism.

The documentary looks at the story of Long Fei, a 29-year-old anti-terrorism police officer in the public security bureau of Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, who led his anti-terrorism team to a spot where terrorists hid on April 19, 1998. To protect one companion’s safety, Long broke into a nearby house but fell into his own blood after he was shot by a terrorist.

Murat Sheripjan, head of a SWAT team of the public security bureau of Hotan, said in the documentary that, “sometimes we feel like we may not come back when going out for a mission; however, when we begin our work, all dangers are forgotten.”

Certain Western media outlets, which usually celebrate criticism of China’s policies in Xinjiang and the region’s so-called “forced labor,” turned blind eyes on the series of documentaries.

Li Weijiang, an expert from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Western media’s silence regarding the third documentary may not change, and their silence exposes their hypocrisy of so-called “freedom of the press.”

“The West has long been known for their double standards on anti-terrorism, and they only play tough when terrorism threatens their own security and interests,” Jia Chunyang, an expert from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Friday.

Jia said that some anti-China forces may make fake videos or documents in an attempt to distort the influence of China’s documentary.