VZCZCXRO8976
OO RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #2022/01 1971110
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 161110Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5224
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 002022 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM EINT CH
 
SUBJECT: ONE WEEK LATER: CHINESE NETIZENS INTEREST IN XINJIANG 
REMAINS HIGH 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  The recent riots and ethnic tensions in Xinjiang remained widely 
discussed topics on major Chinese news portals, Internet forums and 
microblogging platforms in China in the week since July 8. 
Widespread censorship was evident through the continued blocking of 
many popular social discussion platforms and frequent deletion of 
posts.   A number of blogs featuring longer commentary pieces 
remained accessible.  Commentary included criticism of Chinese 
government ethnic policies and the government's handling of the 
unrest.  Many netizens continued to express skepticism about 
government stances.  Turkey, foreign media, and Rabiya Kadeer were 
widely criticized for their "ulterior motives."  Calls for ethnic 
unity and national harmony, often echoing Chinese government 
statements, were widespread.  End Summary. 
 
Popular Discussion Platforms Remain Censored 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Discussion of unrest in Xinjiang continued to be a popular topic 
on the Chinese Internet.  Nevertheless, access to searches about 
Xinjiang, Uighurs, Urumqi, and violence remained filtered and the 
websites Fanfou.com (the Chinese version of Twitter), Facebook and 
Youtube, remained completely blocked.  Twitter itself remained 
accessible.  Comments and threads about the recent riots were 
observed to have been deleted from both liberal and conservative 
websites including PChome, Qiangguo, Sina, and Cat898. 
 
 
Commentary Moves to Blogosphere and Deeper Examination of History 
--------------------------------- ------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Netizens on traditionally liberal websites remained skeptical of 
government explanations; one commentator noted "the truth has still 
not come forth," another said, "China's elite and educated maintain 
deep silence on this matter, why?"  In general, posts tended to be 
longer, with varied explanations citing historical and other factors 
to explain ethnic tensions.  The bulk of commentary moved to 
respected blogs such as Bullog, De-sci, and 1510, while most of 
Twitter postings were dedicated to reposted recent news items from 
Urumqi. 
 
Netizen Reaction to Turkey, Foreign Media and Kadeer 
----------------------- ---------------------------- 
 
¶4.  Bulletin boards which traditionally include a wide range of 
views, such as Cat898 and Qiangguo, featured angry critiques of 
comments characterizing the unrest as "genocide" by Turkish Prime 
Minister Recep Erdogan.  "Who is Turkey to tell us about human 
rights?" and "Turkey will pay for its brazen arrogance," were 
typical comments from these threads.  There was limited reaction to 
reports of Al Qaeda threats against Chinese interests in North 
Africa, but one conservative commentator rhetorically asked, "China, 
are you prepared to face the intensified fire of Muslim hate?" 
 
¶5.  Netizens commented that foreign journalists had been provided 
unrestricted access in Xinjiang and widely critiqued foreign media 
reports, particularly Wall Street Journal articles, as "false" and 
"confusing black and white."  Foreign media was described as 
"biased" and "intentionally misleading," and even "supporters of the 
terrorists."  Rabiya Kadeer continued to be widely criticized and 
compared to the Dalai Lama.  Calls for ethnic unity and national 
unity were widespread in all forums and featured parroted government 
expressions like "Unity amongst different ethnic groups will make 
the country prosperous." 
 
Critique of Government 
---------------------- 
 
¶6.  Bloggers tended to be more measured in placing blame for the 
violence and more introspective in their analysis, with some linking 
the riots to policy failures by the government.  One widely 
circulated essay detailed historical trends and called for specific 
reforms, specifically: learning from the experience of other 
societies in dealing with ethnic problems; abolishing preferential 
ethnic policies; establishing true equality among races; reforming 
governance and increasing the independence of autonomous regions; 
and increasing development of poor rural areas.  Blogs and 
commentators explored different social and cultural hurdles to 
ethnic unity and ways to facilitate interactions. 
 
¶7.  Posts on traditionally conservative sites expressed anger toward 
Uighurs, with one characterizing the violence as a "Chinese 9/11." 
Criticism was directed at "unequal" and "inherently discriminatory" 
policies granting preferential treatment to minorities.  As seen on 
the blogs, a number of postings on these sites also attributed the 
 
BEIJING 00002022  002 OF 002 
 
 
unrest to government failures.  Some questioned the government's 
judgment when "such policies lead to terrorist tendencies."  One 
popular commentator argued, "this disaster stems from the 
government's inability to strictly rule the country by law." 
Discussion of government compensation to families of the victims 
included the comment that "corrupt officials will 'eat' (chi) the 
money up, anyway." 
 
 
Goldberg