State media today: The Global Times snarls about Xinjiang
All central state media today highlight the arrival of general secretary Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 in Portugal “for a two-day state visit aimed at carrying forward friendship and expanding cooperation between the two countries” (English, Chinese).
Xi jetted into Lisbon from Panama, where he and his wife “paid a visit to the Panama Canal and witnessed the passage of a fully loaded Chinese container ship through the waterway’s new locks,” according to Xinhua News Agency.
Another prominent story in state media today is about Xi Jinping “promoting the spirit of the Constitution and upholding the Constitution’s authority in an instruction on the country’s fifth Constitution Day,” which falls today (English, Chinese). No mention is made of Article 35 of the State Constitution, which proclaims that “citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, and of demonstration.”
Finally, the Global Times English edition is in full attack mode against journalists covering the ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang. The nationalistic rag’s Twitter account blasted this out on Twitter yesterday, together with an awful video called “Debunking Western Media” narrated by a computer-generated voice:
Western media’s arrogant mindset refuses to see Xinjiang governance from a broader perspective. What is happening in Xinjiang is a great human rights undertaking that actually contributes to improved human rights in areas subject to extremist thoughts. #Westernmediadebunked…
The Global Times website also published this piece by a pseudonymous opinion writer: Have Western media given up duty of objective reporting? You can guess what the subject matter is — this is how the piece begins:
Time magazine recently published an article about Mihrigul Tursun, a Uyghur woman who claimed she came from a Xinjiang vocational training center, and tweeted a video clip of her testimony of alleged torture with tears and sobs.
