"Crimes against sovereignty": Foreign diplomacy, state propaganda, and the Uyghur crisis in Xinjiang

Abstract

Building on anthropological observations of the Chinese state’s specific strategies and practices in the field of international diplomacy and engagement with the media, this article describes how the Chinese state aims to influence and shape the international court of opinion about its measures in Xinjiang. As such, it examines changes in the international political climate and the framework of human rights in which the discussion of adversities in Xinjiang unfolds. In doing so, it draws attention to several important processes of Chinese statecraft and foreign diplomacy, and identifies the reasons why the Uyghur crisis is met with so much ambiguity and uncertainty by the international public.