China state media claim Xinjiang conspiracy hidden in old video of retired US colonel

A 2018 speech by a career US army officer given new life in a Beijing Daily social media post as evidence clothing firm H&M is ‘just a puppet’

Lawrence Wilkerson’s comments that the CIA could use Uygurs in Xinjiang to ‘destabilise China’ cited as proof of ‘an information war’ by the US

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In a 2018 speech retired US army colonel Lawrence Wilkerson said: “If the CIA has to mount an operation using those Uygurs … Well, the CIA would want to destabilise China, and that would be the best way to do it.” Photo: Getty Images

Holly Chik

Published: 6:18pm, 26 Mar 2021Updated: 8:40pm, 26 Mar 2021

Chinese state media have publicised a speech given by a retired American army colonel three years ago in an attempt to unravel an alleged conspiracy by the United States behind the Xinjiang cotton row.

A WeChat account managed by Beijing Daily published an article titled “H&M is just a puppet; a bigger conspiracy is behind it!” on Thursday, referring to the Swedish multinational clothing retailer facing a boycott in China over its refusal to buy Xinjiang cotton.

The article quoted a 2018 speech by Lawrence Wilkerson, a career army officer, who said if the US Central Intelligence Agency wanted to destabilise China, the best way to do so would be to mount an operation using Uygurs in the country’s far-west region.

“They would foment unrest and to join with those Uygurs in pushing the Han Chinese in Beijing from internal places rather than external,” he said three years ago at Texas-based Ron Paul Institute’s 2018 Washington conference.

Wilkerson served in the US Pacific Command in South Korea, Japan and Hawaii. After retiring from US army service in 1997, Wilkerson served then secretary of state Colin Powell’s chief of staff in 2002-05 and helped to sell the Iraq war in 2003. He also took part in the US invasion of Afghanistan.