What will a conscientious anthropologist do with the bloody history of Canada's genocide of indigenous people? He or she would condemn the atrocities, call on the Canadian government to make a serious reflection and to compensate the aboriginals in a responsible manner, but will never label criticism on Canada's genocide as "propaganda offensive" against the Canadian government as Adrian Zenz, a so-called German anthropologist, did. 

Zenz's pseudo-scholar identity and his ugly face as an anti-China pawn of the West have been exposed once again. On July 4, in a series of tweets, he lashed out at a cartoon that satirizes the Trudeau government's attitude toward Canada's dark history of infringing the human rights of the indigenous people. He claimed the cartoon was "created especially for Chinese propaganda," and accused Chinese "wolf warriors" of using it to launch a "whataboutist attack" against Canada. Ridiculously, the so-called scholar who highlights claims of fabricated genocide in Xinjiang all day long made no mention of the genuine genocide against the indigenous people in Canada at all. 

Let's make it clear: The cartoon has nothing to do with "Chinese propaganda." It was created by an author named "fangzi" on Twitter. The cartoon features Trudeau sitting on the skulls of the indigenous people in a graveyard, saying, "We stole your land. We killed your men. We buried your child. Let's reconcile." After Zenz criticized the cartoon for being made for "Chinese propaganda," the author tweeted that Zenz "is known for making conclusions while ignoring facts contradicting them. He accused me for something totally untrue before even knowing who I am, and immediately blocked me after he found out my account. Wonder if same method applied to his Xinjiang research."  

The cartoon author hit the nail right on the head. It's uncertain if Zenz, the so-called Xinjiang expert, had ever set foot in Xinjiang despite media reports that said he visited China as a tourist in 2007. So what we know is that he at least has not been to the region over the years. He has never listened to the true feelings of the majority of Xinjiang people over the stable and better-off life. But without objective observations and in-depth investigations, he has concocted more than a dozen articles and reports discrediting Xinjiang since 2018. From "forced labor," "forced sterilization" to "genocide," all his accusations against Xinjiang are based on hearsay, rumors, lies and his biased assumptions about China's political system.  

The West has offered no proof in accusing China of genocide in its Xinjiang region. But Canada's indigenous genocide has been now known to all. According to the Economist, over the past month, 1,148 unmarked graves have been found at the sites of three former residential schools in Canada. In the mid-1800s the Canadian government forced at least 150,000 indigenous children into residential schools, mostly run by the Roman Catholic church, and the death toll could be much higher than was previously thought.

Why is Zenz obsessed with cooking up stories about genocide in Xinjiang while he is totally disinterested in the well-documented history of genocide in Canada? What he cares about is not genocide, but an obsession with making an issue of Xinjiang to earn "fame" and benefits from the West. 

Canada committed heinous crimes against the indigenous people in history, bringing them painful wounds that cannot be healed. The Canadian government cannot try to achieve "reconciliation" by simply issuing an apology. Moreover, instead of seeking to atone for historical abuses and focusing on addressing its own present-day human rights violations, Canada led an anti-China joint statement on the Xinjiang issue at the UN. It's justified and reasonable for China and any other country with a conscience to denounce Canada's horrible acts. That's not "Chinese propaganda," but what a responsible country safeguarding fairness and justice should do. 

Figures like Zenz are propaganda tools of the West. It's the West that is launching a propaganda offensive against China with lies and smears. They have made an issue of Xinjiang with an attempt to tarnish China's image and seek an advantage in the geopolitical competition with China, but their self-proclaimed human rights moral foundation is crumbling.