Torchlight Uyghur Group

December 24, 2019

While most of the conventional propaganda establishments and social media of the West have been banned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China, the China Global Television Network (CGTN) America is freely operating with its biased propaganda on the US soil today.

The CGTN America is an American leg of Beijing based China Central Television (CCTV) and under direct control of the Public Propaganda Department of the CCP. According to a New York Times report [1], the CGTN America penetrates 30 million households in America with the content of pro-Beijing propaganda and forced confessions. Objective opinions or any subjects that displease Beijing are excluded from its programs. In November 2019, the CGTN America aired a piece that played down China’s imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Uyghur ethnic minority group. The Times and others have reported that the Uyghurs are held against their will, often in dismal conditions with widespread physiological, physical torture and enforced indoctrination to denounce their ethnic and religious identity. CGTN America has portrayed the Uyghurs as terrorists and the camps as successful vocational training and antiterrorism centers and claiming that Uyghurs should be grateful for what has been done by the CCP regime [2-5]. Because of its propaganda work on behalf of the Chinese regime, the US Justice Department registered CGTN as a Foreign Agent in early 2019 [6].

The CCP’s official policy of restriction and banning the right to freedom of expressions for its own citizens and preventing its citizens from obtaining objective information in China has been noticed further extended and expanded globally. Frequent reports of striking examples of Chinese influence in the West continue to shock our conscience. A few months ago, the CCP controlled CCTV 5 cancelled the scheduled broadcasting of the NBA games in China, right after the comment made by the Houston Rockets’ Daryl Morey on Hong Kong protesters [7-8]. Now, a similar ban has been imposed on broadcasting of Arsenal related soccer matches as means of retaliation for a comment made by soccer star Mesut Özil on Chinese prosecution of Uyghurs [9-10].

The freedom of expression is the most basic and the core of the universally accepted human rights and therefore should be protected and preserved.

Disturbing reports on China’s interference on this basic Human Rights on our US soil and in the West is growing and threatening the core value of our democracy and freedom. This is unacceptable and must be stopped.

Registering the CCP controlled CGTN America as a Foreign Agent has been a rightful first step from our government to ensure that freedom of expression and freedom of thought still matter for us and for the generations to come. We must continue in exposing the lies of the CGTN and we must not trust any lies coming from this propaganda machine.

Your voice is precious to us. Please sign this petition and spread the information above to help the Uyghur people in their struggle against the evil CCP regime.

Thank you!

You can find more information from the following sites:

https://www.facebook.com/torchuyghur/

https://twitter.com/torch_uyghur

http://blog.freedomsherald.org

http://freedomsherald.org/ET/unb/

Torchlight Uyghur Group’s previous petitions:

https://www.change.org/search?q=Torchlight%20Uyghur%20Group

References:

[1] Live From America’s Capital, a TV Station Run by China’s Communist Party
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/business/cctv-china-usa-propaganda.amp.html

[2] Fighting terrorism in Xinjiang
https://youtu.be/u4cYE6E27_g

[3] What's behind the Uyghur Act passed by the U.S. House?
https://youtu.be/QLdb-EkZU04

[4] The Heat: Xinjiang - The fight against extremism
https://youtu.be/u661RuxbkW8

[5] Liu Xin discusses CGTN's documentary on China's Xinjiang
https://youtu.be/h2yMjbB1q24

[6] Chinese State Media Giant CGTN Registers as Foreign Agent in U.S.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-state-media-giant-cgtn-registers-as-foreign-agent-in-u-s-11549387532

[7] The NBA's crisis in China threatens multibillion-dollar ties
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nba-china-crisis-nba-ties-with-china-worth-billions-now-under-strain/

[8] The N.B.A.’s China Problem Is Getting Worse
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/sports/basketball/nba-china.html

[9] Arsenal’s Mesut Özil Slams Uighur Repression and China Pulls Premier League Game
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-pulls-u-k-soccer-game-after-star-player-slams-beijings-repression-of-uighurs-11576421803

[10] Mesut Özil China row: western brands be warned, self-censorship won't protect you
https://www.theguardian.com/football/commentisfree/2019/dec/18/mesut-ozil-china-row-western-brands-be-warned-self-censorship-wont-protect-you