After years of brutal repression, China's Communist Party tries to turn Xinjiang into a tourism hots

#Xinjiang #China #Uyghur #ChineseCommunistParty
In western China, a brand new "Ancient City" is located in middle tourist boom, on streets of desert oasis historic Kashgar, known as cradle Uyghur culture. In recent years, most unique adobe houses of the old city, which have survived 2000 years changing empires, have been destroyed by government's concerns about earthquake and cleanliness. Uyghur activist groups say that the collapse of the old city means "cultural genocide. Gift looms that now sell fridge magnets, cheap jewelry and traditional instruments are lined up on streets; here visitors can stroll through the crowd with an electric carriage or wear a traditional Uyghur costume for photo on stairs of a mosque. China says that more than 180 million tourists have flocked to the province of Xinjiang so far this year, which has been attracted by the government's discounted travel coupons. In Xinjiang, tourists can explore under intense police protection. Police checkpoints were taken back, replacing a wide network of advanced face recognition security cameras. According to the United Nations report published last year, these are one the few visible signs of ten years intense pressure that could constitute a "crime against humanity. Xinjiang's 'big rebranding' Amid government's highly secret campaign to eliminate extremism among Uyghur population and other Muslim minorities, Xinjiang region has been closed to a large part of world media for several years. The pressures came after decades of unrest, including uprisings the capital Urumqi, where hundreds of people 2009, and car attack that killed five people against pedestrians Beijing's Tiananmen Square 2013. Uyghur people are a predominantly Turkish-speaking ethnic group in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China. When stabbed and explosive attack on Urumqi train station overshadowed President Xi Jinping's trip to state in 2014, he ordered authorities to "hard attack" against terrorism. Since then, a choir of academics, researchers, journalists and lawyers has meticulously documented widespread abuse by the government, including collective concentration camps, forced labor and birth prevention policies. The United States described the pressure as "genocide", but Australia did not use this word. China first denied the existence of camps, then insisted that all "professional centers" were closed in 2019. It is now moving to the "normalization" stage in the state. The great rebranding of Sincan continues at full speed. A carefully planned Xinjiang tour ABC was invited a media tour in region, which was carefully organized and curated by Chinese government to showcase best things state has offer. However, no official wanted to switch to the records. We were shown a Uyghur kindergarten, where students read poems in Mandarin in the classroom, then happily dance with traditional music on the playground. The Chinese Government took the media to a primary school in Xinjiang. A successful factory owned