Ett bekant hot : En studie av hur Kina konstruerat ett strategiskt narrativ kring Xinjiang

• Main Author: Söderberg, Elenor
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen 2021
• Subjects: China; Soft power; Strategic narratives; Religious violence; Terrorism; Political Science; Statsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-443616

This study intends to examine China’s use of religious violence and antiterrorism when constructing a narrative of the situation in Xinjiang. While the tensions in Xinjiang are not a new occurrence, their intensity has undoubtedly increased. Human Rights Watch has described it as a “cultural genocide” and several international actors have condemned Chinas treatment of the minority group Uyghurs. While China seems to portray the tensions as a result of several acts of religious terror, there are traces of a more complicated conflict. Furthermore, the study shows that the conflict was rarely described as the result of terrorism before the September 11 terrorist attacks, despite the conflict starting in the early 1990s. At the same time, researchers have claimed that Islamic fundamentalists have been adopted as something of a global antagonist, and the fear of religious violence has been recognized as a threat that needs to be stopped, even if it demands more violence. Thus, this study is concerned with studying how this has been acknowledged in a global setting and used by global actors as a strategic tool to vindicate controversial actions. The study illustrates how religious violence and antiterrorism have been used in the creation of a strategic narrative by China. Strategic narratives have been described as the soft power in the 21st century and a well-suited methodological tool to form a deeper understanding of soft power in international relations. The study is done through a text- and narrative analysis of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ testimony of Xinjiang. The results show that extremist religion and terrorists have been pointed out as a main threat in Xinjiang, while separatist also has been linked to these two. By doing this China has managed to acknowledge its measures against the Uyghur separatist movement as a part of the global war against terror.