The China-based foreigners defending Beijing from Xinjiang genocide claims

Chinese foreign ministry highlights remarks by Shenzhen-based Canadian to counter allegations of human rights abuses

Counter-narrative describes Western efforts to undermine and destabilise China by criticising policies in its remote western region

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Canadian Daniel Dumbrill’s video address to an online panel discussion on Xinjiang was screened ahead of a Chinese foreign ministry press conference. Photo: Handout

Holly ChikandEduardo Baptista

Published: 5:24pm, 30 Mar 2021Updated: 7:30pm, 30 Mar 2021

Foreigners who depict China in a positive light are becoming increasingly important to Beijing’s counter-narrative to allegations of an ongoing genocide in the far-western region of Xinjiang.

In a rare move, China’s foreign ministry last week used a speech by a Shenzhen-based Canadian vlogger to hit home its point that Western countries are targeting Xinjiang to contain China, rather than because of alleged human rights abuses being committed against the region’s Uygur ethnic minority.

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In a 12-minute presentation during a live online discussion on March 19, Canadian YouTuber Daniel Dumbrill, who runs a craft beer bar in the southern city of Shenzhen, explained why the US and Western countries wanted “to disrupt China and its relationships”. A video of the presentation was widely shared by Chinese state media, including broadcaster CGTN, as well as on social media platform Weibo. It was originally uploaded to YouTube, a platform blocked in China.

In his speech, Dumbrill said China was set to overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy sooner than expected, making the country a non-Western option for cooperative partnerships with resource-rich countries. He also said there was an increasing risk the renminbi would challenge the US dollar’s global hegemony, given the potential for a digital Chinese currency.

“Add the context of Xinjiang being the site of Asia’s largest oil deposits, and the fact that it’s a key doorway to China’s Belt and Road Initiative – and that it suffered from pre-existing Islamic terrorism problems – the question suddenly becomes how could you possibly not expect America to take a special interest in Xinjiang – and not because of human rights, knowing full well America’s history,” he said.

China’s foreign ministry played Dumbrill’s video before its press conference last Friday, followed by the screening of part of a 2018 speech by former US secretary of state Colin Powell’s chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson. The career army officer 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 remote western region.

The China-based foreigners defending Beijing from Xinjiang genocide claims

Chinese foreign ministry highlights remarks by Shenzhen-based Canadian to counter allegations of human rights abuses Counter-narrative describes Western efforts to undermine and destabilise China by criticising policies in its remote western region

Chinese foreign ministry highlights remarks by Shenzhen-based Canadian to counter allegations of human rights abuses

Counter-narrative describes Western efforts to undermine and destabilise China by criticising policies in its remote western region