China uses London travel show to promote its narrative of Xinjiang in the West

November 8, 2024 | Radio Free Asia | By Erkin Tarim for RFA Uyghur

Rights groups, including the Uyghur Human Rights Project based in Washington, have denounced such trips as “genocide tourism,” accusing China of sanitizing its violations of human rights in the region.

Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project and co-author of a report on tourism in Xinjiang said China was using the travel fair to try to show the world the “success” of its “Xinjiang policy” in stabilizing the region.

He said this was the first time China sent Xinjiang tourism officials to the World Travel Market, which holds six annual business-to-business events across four continents.

The Chinese government uses tourism as a proxy to show visitors “very carefully curated parts of the region and then reporting back to the world that the region is now a great success,” Szadzieski said.

Read the full article: https://www.rfa.org/english/uyghur/2024/11/08/xinjiang-london-travel-exhibit/