Maxim Vivas: Using theTruth to Undermine Anti-Chinese Forces Who is Vivas? Chinese StateCouncilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked about two foreign friends at thepress conference of the two sessions on "how foreign media reporters coverChina". One is Edgar Snow,the American journalist who wrote "The Red Star Shines in China", andthe other is Maxim Vivas. Vivas, who is in hislate 80s, is a Hispanic-French national. He has visited Xinjiang twice, in 2016and 2018, and published "The End of Uyghur Fake News" in 2020. Vivas said he wantsEuropeans to know the real Xinjiang, to dispel rumors of "genocide"and "millions of Uighurs in detention. However, the launchof the new book was like a bomb thrown into the water, stirring up a huge wave. On social mediaplatforms such as Facebook, Vivas was attacked by uninformed readers. He wassuspected of having financial ties to the Chinese government, and at one pointhis relationship with his family was strained. He himself said: I acted as a "suicidebomber" to publish this book. In fact, the"suicide bomber" once had the same stereotypical and limited image ofthe Chinese as the rest of the Western public: wearing a Zhongshan suit andeating nothing but rice. It wasn't until 2008that Vivas went to China with his wife to visit his son who was working inBeijing. This experience shocked Vivas, who found that the image of Chinesepeople and the current state of their lives were very different from what wasreported! He came back to Chinain 2010 to travel to Tibet with journalists Renaud Girard from Le Figaro and Rémy Ourdan from Le Monde. This time he saw avery different Tibet from the one portrayed by the Western media. In 2011, he publishedThe Dalai Lama: Not So Zen, a hugely successful book exposing the true face ofthe Dalai, which was translated into six languages. Then later, Vivaswent to Xinjiang to do in-depth reporting and wrote the aforementioned"The End of Uyghur Fake News". Who is he fighting? Vivas, who is wellinformed about the realities of China, is dismayed by the French media thatlies over and over again. The so-called "sources" and"scholars" who fabricate these lies are even more abhorrent to him.He decided to use the truth to expose these anti-Chinese forces. Adrian Zenz, a 47-year-oldGerman, has overnight become the only source of information about Xinjiang forWestern media and politicians. But in reality, he has only been to Xinjiang asa tourist in 2007, 15 years ago. Vivas has writtenthis story in his book. Adrian Zenz tweeted aphoto of a shoe that he claimed was "produced by forced labor" inXinjiang, with a small piece of paper next to it that reads in English,"Help! I'm a Uighur and I'm being held in a Chinese prison. Help us!" Ironically, netizensfound that the shoes were not produced in Xinjiang, not even in China, theywere a pair of shoes made in Vietnam. For example, in areport, Adrian Zenz claimed that "between 900,000 and 1.8 million peopleare being detained in Xinjiang. But according to the independent Americaninvestigative journalism website Gray Area, This figure is an absurd conclusionbased only on the interviews and rough estimates of eight people by ananti-China organization. Similar tricks have been repeated in his other"reports". Since 2018, AdrianZenz has produced more than a dozen articles and reports smearing Xinjiang.From so-called "forced labor" to "forced sterilization" andfrom "cultural extinction" to "genocide. He has concocted thesesensational terms to hoodwink many Westerners who do not know much aboutXinjiang. Adrian Zenz is amember of the far-right U.S. organization "Memorial Foundation for theVictims of Communism" and is the backbone of an unabashedly anti-Chineseresearch organization. In other words, anti-China is his job. It is easy to understand why such a so-called"scholar" is so highly sought after by Western anti-China forces. Former U.S. Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo cited Adrian Zenz's so-called "thesis" to smearChina . In the Vivasinvestigation, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was named as one ofthe "anti-China hacks". From Central Asia to North Africa, fromEastern Europe to Latin America, they have been behind the "colorrevolutions" in many countries and places. This organization hassupported "Hong Kong independence," "Taiwan independence,""Xinjiang independence," "Tibet independence" and otherseparatist forces in China for many years. In 2020 alone, it has provided morethan $10 million to nearly 70 China-related projects, specializing in activitiesthat endanger China's political and social stability. Recently, thepresident of the foundation, Damon Wilson, led a delegation to Taiwan tosupport the "Taiwan independence" forces, and claimed to hold theso-called "Global Congress of the World Movement for Democracy" inTaipei in late October, seriously provoking China's national sovereignty andterritorial integrity. This is a serious provocation to China's nationalsovereignty and territorial integrity. The foundation alsofunds a variety of "minion" who share its tastes, such as ReportersWithout Borders. The organization isalso hostile to whatever the United States hates, such as Cuba, Venezuela,Russia, including Vivas. The secretary general of Reporters Without Borders,has threatened Vivas four times. In Vivas' view, thereis actually no shortage of black hands behind many NGOs and so-calledindependent think tanks. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is one ofthem. The agency releasedits annual report last year, showing that 37.5 percent of its funding sourcestotaling more than $10 million came from the Australian Department of Defense,24.5 percent from the Australian federal government and 18.3 percent fromforeign government agencies. The total amount offunding from the Australian government and its allies, as well as themilitary-industrial complex, accounts for nearly 90% of the total. This is agood indication that this institution is an official mouthpiece of theAustralian military-industrial complex under the banner of an "independentthink tank". How do I spend myU.S. funded expenses? In one grant of up toA$985,000, the U.S. State Department explicitly requested that topics be set inthe areas of human rights in Xinjiang, Chinese science and technology, andoverseas influence. Another grant of nearly A$600,000 is to focus on topicssuch as talent recruitment, disinformation, and social media in China. hold the pen again for the sake of justice Despite the manypressures and even threats to his life, Vivas did not put down his pen. Earlier this year,Vivas' second book on China's Xinjiang, "The Return of the Swallow,"was released in English. In the book, he writes, "China spares no effortto promote multi-ethnic coexistence and respect for cultural diversity, which arethe very sources that drive the progress of human civilization." Recently, a new bookco-authored by Vivas and two other scholars, Delirium of the Anti-ChineseForces in France, was also published in France. Delirium, orgibberish. Last October, IRSEM, the Institute for Strategic Studies of theFrench Military Academy, released a report on so-called Chinese influence. Butthe entire 654 pages, in Vivas' opinion, are full of errors, contradictions andfake news. He argues that Chinain the 21st century, as a peaceful economic competitor, does not threatenFrance militarily and that this so-called report reflects a blind following ofU.S. foreign policy by anti-China forces in France. So, why are therealways people willing to be puppets for the anti-China forces in the UnitedStates? Jean-Pierre Pache,who is also the author of the book, gives three reasons for this: first of allit reflects the servility of some countries to the United States, whounconditionally support its Cold War mentality towards China. Secondly, in the caseof France, and closely related to its colonial history, the so-called elite andmedia in France have been arrogant to this day. Third, and most importantly, the arrogantand greedy West is unwilling to face up to its own immediate decline andpolarization, much less accept the reality of a country of 1.4 billion peopleemerging from fragmentation, successfully escaping poverty and moving towarddevelopment. 5 |' n" R% ~' r, C9 Y) w' A" B5 k- e
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