COLUMN
In the academic world, Chinese history and sources are considered untrustworthy, unless verified by external sources. It is a known fact that China writes history to fulfill its political purpose. Willem van Kemenade wrote in his “China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc” (1997) that for the Chinese, “history is not what happened but what should have happened.”
In ancient Chinese history, most of its failed military wars were portrayed as a victory by royal historians. This was where the fabricated history of China began. Since Chinese emperors wished to be written about in their lifetime and remembered posthumously as victorious kings, historians could not record true history. As a result, whenever any emperor came back defeated, Chinese historians would record it as if they won. Subsequently, future generations utilized these lies as historical facts justifying their claim for other lands and their military expansionist expeditions as legitimate.
In the Chinese psyche, there is a self-perception that they are a perfect, and indeed the master race, perceiving other races as “barbarians” and even “monsters.” This is the kernel of Chinese racism, unique from other versions of racism in the world. In his article, “Imperial order of things: Notes on Han Chinese Racism,” the Taiwanese academic, Chen Guangxing, notes that the Chinese consider themselves the center of the world, and all other nations revolve around it and from a Chinese perspective, the world must be governed from this centre.
In his book, “The Great Failure,” Zbigniew Brzezinski describes the tone utilized by the Chinese emperor in a letter addressed to the British king, in which the former treated the latter as one of his subordinate officials. This kind of narcissism also manifests in most (Han) Chinese people today, indicating that the notion of a superior race is deeply engrained in their DNA, more deeply rooted than even the Nazi’s master race theory, being almost an inherent trait.
This kind of mentality stems from false history depicting that they are always victorious, wise, great, and strong, leading to a superiority complex in Han Chinese. The basis of fabricating false history, is taken from the Chinese proverb “One person spreads a lie, [and] ten thousand people spread it as truth” （一人传虚万人传实）, which implies deep-rooted and ancient political maliciousness, still operative today.
At its peak, China expanded its military forces all the way to Samarkand. This expansion was not written as an invasion in the Chinese history books but written as all the lands between the Pacific Ocean, Ural Mountains, and the Caspian Sea, including Samarkand, were historical territories of China. This deliberately invented false history is implanted in the minds of Chinese young generations today. China even claims that one of its classic poets, Li Bai (李白( , was born on the west bank of Lake Balkhash which strategically indoctrinates its new generations that the entirety of Central Asia and other lands stretching across Eurasian borders defined by Ural Mountains are the “historical territories” of China. The benefits of this strategic indoctrination from a national interest perspective is that as new generations believe these territories are theirs, they consider it as their patriotic and moral duty to reclaim this land once they are strong enough to achieve this goal.
Furthermore, they would consider the reclamation, with no sense of guilt or shame, not as an invasion but as their unassailable right to do so. Therefore, to keep fabricating false history and putting these lies into the psyche of young generations through history books is one of the manifestations of Chinese racism. This misinformation is then passed on from one generation to the next, turning fabrications into truth, despite the dream of Sinocentricism sounding too unrealistic and utopian.
To strengthen the validity of these historical “facts” and to increase their convincing power, Chinese are notorious for playing games of finding “historical artifacts”. For example, to fortify the political lie that East Turkistan has always been an inseparable part of China, historical artifacts and documents written in Chinese scripit, originating from inner or mainland China, were secretly brought into East Turkistan where they were buried in old graveyards and abandoned ancient cities. These artifacts were later dug out as new discoveries with foreign experts as witnesses. Uyghurs reported they spotted some Chinese experts when they were clumsily burying these artifacts in those places. There were also lots of jokes among Uyghurs about how Chinese failed to hide their games of “creating false histories.”
Some of these artifacts and documents from inner China buried East Turkistan have not been “discovered” yet. Nobody knows when they are going to be retrieved or perhaps China no longer needs to engage itself with these games as it feels itself full at home now in East Turkistan. Who can guarantee that the same Chinese games will not be played in neighboring countries secretly? And or do it in the future?
No other nation on Earth has used traces left after a one-time invasion or touristic trips as evidence for claiming for land except the Chinese. The Chinese are extremely creative in re-writing and re-inventing history. It is therefore our moral duty to warn the world that we are living in an era which satisfies all of the best conditions to make the dreams of Sinocentricism and Chinese expansionism come true, supported by false histories and false historical evidences. This is not a secret anymore because China has already suitably revealed its true ambitions.
(Ghulam O Yaghma is President of East Turkistan Government in Exile)
