Why China Cares about Canada’s Indigenous Residential Schools
From Whataboutism to Internal Denial
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12967186 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiyuan Xia (University of Manitoba, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-17 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Genocide Studies and Prevention (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1911-0359 • E-ISSN: 1911-9933 |
| Publisher | International Association of Genocide Scholars (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.5038/1911-9933.17.1.1906 |
| OpenAlex | W4385956515 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
This article examines how the Chinese government and its propaganda departments use genocide-related discourses to fulfil different political purposes at home and abroad. By criticizing Western colonialist regimes’ assimilation policies, especially Canada’s Indigenous residential schools, the Chinese diplomats apply the rhetoric of whataboutism to dodge the international community’s questions about China’s systematic persecution of Uyghur Muslims. Domestically, China’s state media intensively cover Canada’s residential school system and the colonial genocide against Indigenous people, trying to distract the audience from the state atrocities in Xinjiang and mislead the public to distrust Canada and other countries’ motives for accusing China of committing genocide. This media campaign is an example of the Chinese government’s “ yu lun dao xiang ” (public opinion orientation) propaganda. It deploys a mirroring strategy that makes use of the agendas related to the genocides in other countries to cover up a genocide that is happening at home; it turns the residential school survivors’ trauma into a tool to defend a genocidal system that likewise takes the form of education. This strategy poses a new challenge to the diplomatic and academic work that aims to prevent genocide
China · Criminology · Genocide · Government (linguistics · Indigenous · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Residential schools and the effects on Indigenous health and well-being in Canada—a scoping review
Genocide
What about Whataboutism
Genocidal processes
Is China Guilty of Committing Genocide in Xinjiang
Genocidal carcerality and Indian residential schools in Canada
Canada and colonial genocide
Dossier
This Benevolent Experiment
Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang
Colonialism, genocide, and Tibet
The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada
An Indigenous Feminist's Take On The Ontological Turn
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |