A group of international scholars have signed an open letter to a New York-based socialist magazine, condemning the publication of a report they claim is dismissive of China’s crackdown on Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

“We wish it were the case that talk of the internment camps was a myth, fabricated by the National Endowment for Democracy and the CIA. But it is not,” read the letter, addressed to the Monthly Review, alluding to a denialist conspiracy theory that the humanitarian crisis in Xinjiang is fabricated by American spy agencies. The letter condemned the Monthly Review’s article displaying “agnosticism, let alone denialism, towards what is clearly a shocking infringement of the rights of Uyghur people.” 

Since 2017, the Chinese government has implemented a vast system of prisons, camps and surveillance apparatus in Xinjiang to control its Muslim minorities, in the name of combating terrorism. Beijing’s crackdown on Uyghurs and other Muslims has been criticized by world leaders and been the subject of significant international media attention. 

But more recently, a backlash has built up momentum, largely pushed by ultra-left defenders of the Chinese government and Beijing’s state media. It seeks to downplay the atrocities gripping Xinjiang, and paint Western coverage of Uyghur oppression as a plot designed to spark a new cold war.