Residents visit a night market on May 30, 2021 in Hotan, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photo: CFP

Anti-China forces are planning a new round of smearing campaigns against China's Xinjiang policy as the "Uyghur Tribunal," an organization formed by secessionists and Western anti-China forces in London, is about to hold what it terms as a first hearing of whether China's policy in Xinjiang is tantamount to genocide starting from Friday to Monday.

"Such a 'tribunal' is neither legal nor credible. It is just another anti-China political farce concocted by a few people. It attempts to run in the name of "tribunal" to engage in anti-China political and public opinion manipulation. This is nothing but an insult on the law," Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.

Analysts pointed out that this self-styled tribunal itself is a joke. It is not only a political stunt but also a business one.

The "Uyghur Tribunal" is operating as a private UK company limited by guarantee, according to its website. Analysts pointed out that private companies limited by guarantee are generally used in the UK for societies, charities, etc. That is to say, this is a completely voluntary civil organization which has nothing to do with the law. It only usurps the name of the "court," but it is, in reality, a pseudo court.

The largest donor to this so-called tribunal is the World Uyghur Congress (WUC). According to the introduction on its website, in June 2020, anti-China secessionist and president of the WUC formally requested that Geoffrey Nice, an infamous anti-China figure, establish and chair a so-called independent people's tribunal to investigate "ongoing atrocities and possible genocide" against the Uygurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic Muslim populations. The tribunal was launched on September 3, 2020.

The website also showed that the Crowdfunder page has raised nearly 250,000 pounds, with an initial amount of around $115,000 donated through the WUC.

While it claimed that it collects funding from various channels, in actual fact, the WUC is its major funding source. 

Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, told a regular media briefing on May 26 that based on a presumption of guilt, this so-called "tribunal" falsifies evidence and recruits actors. The few so-called "witnesses" who keep up the charade are just lying anti-China elements. 

"We've laid bare their true faces repeatedly. Perhaps to cover the cost of recruiting these actors, this special machine of lies launched a public fundraising campaign for 50,000 pounds, but only received about 7,000 pounds in three months, which serves to show how little support it has," Zhao said.

According to US-based investigative news website Grayzone, since its inception, the WUC has been backed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). With millions in US taxpayer money, the NED and its subsidiaries have backed opposition parties, "civil society" groups, and media organizations in countries targeted by the US for regime change.

The so-called tribunal also mentioned that it was founded with the assistance of the Coalition for Genocide Response, which was founded on November 4, 2019, by a few British parliamentarians and experts. One of the co-founders of the organization is Luke de Pulford, an infamous anti-China figure. He also coordinates the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and advises the WUC, according to media reports.

He was one of the most active British politicians during the riots in Hong Kong in 2019, and was the main force behind Hong Kong lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu's stripping of an honorary doctorate from Anglia Ruskin University and disbarment by the British Bar Service, according to media reports. The IPAC he cofounded viewed China's rise as a threat. Nice, who chairs the fake tribunal, is also on the Coalition for Genocide Response.

The Global Times also found out that the main members of the fake tribunal have working experience on the "China Tribunal", which was commissioned by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC). The ETAC is connected to Falun Gong, an illegal cult banned by the Chinese government, according to a Grayzone report.

The photo taken on August 15, 2020 shows Urumqi Olympic Sports Center in Urumqi, capital city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Photo: CFP

Live for profit

Nice's resume features him as a prosecutor in the case against Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian leader, at the International Criminal Tribunal. In 2016, the court ruled out the case sighting insufficient evidence in the case against Milosevic and his involvement in plans to create territories ethnically cleansed of non-Serbs during the Bosnian War. 

Andy Wilcoxson, who closely followed Milosevic's trial wrote in a 2017 report that buried in a footnote deep in the fourth volume of the judgment against Bosnian-Serb General Ratko Mladic, the judges unanimously conclude that "the evidence received by the trial chamber did not show that Slobodan Milosevic, Jovica Stanisic, Franko Simatovic, Zeljko Raznatovic, or Vojislav Seselj participated in the realization of the common criminal objective" to establish an ethnically-homogenous Bosnian-Serb entity through the commission of crimes alleged in the indictment.

"This is an important admission because practically the entire Western press corps and virtually every political leader in every Western country has spent the last 25 years telling us that Slobodan Milosevic was a genocidal monster cut from the same cloth as Adolf Hitler. We were told that he was the 'Butcher of the Balkans,' but there was never any evidence to support those accusations. We were lied to in order to justify economic sanctions and NATO military aggression against the people of Serbia - just like they lied to us to justify the Iraq war," he wrote.

Nice was the one who argued for Milosevic's guilt at the trial. Some pointed out that the trail was just a political stunt. 

In addition, Nice was also the co-author of the infamous Caesar Report. He and several other authors made flimsy reports about the situation in Syria based on insufficient evidence, which led to US' sanctions. The unilateral sanctions did not protect civilians in Syria, but lead them to hunger and death.

In recent years, Nice colluded with anti-China forces and began a series of smearing campaign against China.

He was active during riots in Hong Kong. He supported secessionists in Hong Kong and was the sponsor of the Hong Kong Watch, which stirred trouble in Hong Kong under the banner of caring for Hong Hong's human rights.

In reality, what Nice really cares about is not human rights, neither is it the human rights of Syrians nor the human rights of the people in Xinjiang, but the strategic goals of the donors and the practical benefits he can gain from them, analysts said.



Familiar actors and routines

The upcoming farce of the "hearings" is just another slick political show for Nice and the anti-China forces behind him.

It typically starts from a predetermined position of guilt and then finds a team of actors and self-claimed judiciary experts to bring a "final verdict" based on the "evidence" they designed.

This time, the actors they have found are still familiar.

Sayragul Sauytbay, for instance, who appeared on the list of "witnesses," claimed herself a former teacher at a Xinjiang vocational training center but later a "victim" who was detained at the center and experienced "torture and forced to eat pork" in anti-China force's portrayals.

In truth, she never worked at any vocational education and training center. She made up lies to confuse the public and smear Xinjiang, a despicable and vile act indeed, a Xinjiang regional government spokesperson, Elijan Anayt, said at a press conference on March 11, 2020.

Another "expert witnesses" at the hearing, Adrian Zenz, who has been hailed as an "expert" on Xinjiang by some Western media outlets, is an infamous name for the Chinese due to his relentless fake reports aimed at defaming China's Xinjiang.

In addition, researchers from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) - funded by the US defense department, diplomatic agencies, and arms merchants - which have fabricated various anti-China rumors is also among the expert witnesses. The ASPI, driven by its backers, has long provided the groundless "academic support" for its accusations against Xinjiang.

Similarly, the "Uyghur Transitional Justice Database" is also among the witnesses. The database self-claimed to record missing persons in Xinjiang but was refuted by government as a tool used by separatists from Xinjiang to defame the region.

Predictably, what we can expect to hear from these "witnesses" who are prone to lying is always repeated lies.

An expert on international law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times that those people's false accusations were too outrageous to be accepted by formal legal institutions. So they had no other way but to set up their own "court" to hold a "trial" as a ridiculous political show. 

The so-called "independent court" has no legitimacy under either international or domestic law. They are simply using the name of the law to put pressure on China. 

The WUC, the largest funder of the "court," has been tightly aligned with Washington's foreign policy agenda and hostile new Cold War strategy which seeks to contain and impede the rise of China. 

"The WUC regularly meets with and lobbies the US and Western politicians, urging them to isolate and 'increase the pressure on China;' ratchet up economic sanctions; curb ties with China, and withdraw Western companies from the region," as a previous Grey Zone investigative article suggested.