Recently, the owner of a small store in western China came across some remarks by Mike Pompeo, the former U.S. secretary of state. What he heard made him angry.
A worker in a textile company had the same reaction. So did a retiree in her 80s. And a taxi driver.
Pompeo had routinely accused China of committing human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, and these four people made videos to express their outrage. But they did so in oddly similar ways.
“Pompeo said that we Uyghurs are locked up and have no freedom,” the store owner said in his video. “We are very free now….”
Read it all (note please that the above is the title on the print edition).
Exclusive: The videos are meant to look like everyday life.
But our investigation found that they're part of an elaborate effort by China to shape world opinion about Xinjiang, where Uyghurs are living under repressive government policies. https://t.co/GFVANy76hg
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 23, 2021