Officials of the Chinese Communist Party and state may genuinely believe that they are pursuing beneficial policies in Xinjiang while actually causing harm. They appear to exist in an information bubble or echo chamber, in which they are insulated from on-the-ground realities and instead reinforce inaccurate assumptions about the causes of unrest. In this policy brief Eric Schluessel identifies some of the ways that party-state officials have created a persistent narrative that “foreign forces” infiltrate Xinjiang to cause disruption. This appealing narrative allows them to ignore proximal causes of violence.
This working paper was written as part of the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project, a research initiative of Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. This article arises from a partnership between the project and the United States Institute of Peace focused on understanding how the geopolitics of religion shapes peace and conflict dynamics in particular regional and country settings. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the respective author(s).
