Disinformation, Propaganda, and the Uyghur Crisis: The CCP’s international effort to shape the narrative on mass detention

Tuesday, July 28, 2020,

1:00pm – 2:30pm EDT

Register here

The Uyghur human rights crisis has been a major test of the Chinese government’s ability to shape discourse and control information on a subject that seriously jeopardizes its reputation. In response to the emergence of evidence of its secret campaign of mass detention, the Chinese government has shifted the narrative on the camps, first from silence, to denial, to attempts to frame them as a tool in a legitimate counter-terrorist struggle. To launch a new report, “The Happiest Muslims in the World”: Disinformation, Propaganda and the Uyghur Crisis, UHRP has invited a panel of experts to discuss this timely issue and its implications for human rights worldwide.

Moderator: Nicole Morgret, Project Manager, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Speakers:

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian is the China reporter at Axios. Before joining Axios, Bethany served as the lead reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ China Cables project, a major leak of classified Chinese government documents revealing the inner workings of mass internment camps in Xinjiang. Previously, Bethany was an editor and contributing reporter at Foreign Policy magazine and a national security reporter at The Daily Beast. Bethany spent four years in China. She is now based in Washington, DC.

Sarah Cook is Senior Research Analyst for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House. She directs the China Media Bulletin, a monthly digest in English and Chinese providing news and analysis on media freedom developments related to China. She is the author of the recent report, Beijing’s Global Megaphone: The Expansion of Chinese Communist Party Media Influence since 2017.

Rayhan Asat is an attorney specializing in anti-corruption, internal investigations, and international dispute resolution. Rayhan is also the president of the American Turkic International Lawyers Association. She is campaigning for the release of her brother, Ekpar Asat, since his disappearance into the state detention system.

Dr. Teng Biao is an academic lawyer, currently Grove Human Rights Scholar at Hunter College. He has been a lecturer at the China University of Politics and Law (Beijing), a visiting scholar at Yale, Harvard, and the New York University. Teng’s research focuses on criminal justice, human rights, social movements, and political transition in China. Teng defended cases involving freedom of expression, religious freedom, the death penalty, Tibetans and Uyghurs. He co-founded two human rights NGOs in Beijing – the Open Constitution Initiative, and China Against the Death Penalty, in 2003 and 2010, respectively. He is one of the earliest promoters of the Rights Defense Movement in China and the manifesto Charter 08, for which Dr. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Teng has received various international human rights awards including the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic (2007).

Register for the event here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5283549604080042764