The Small and the Large Floor Mops

In an op-ed for Germany's Tagesspiegel GMF’s Senior Fellow Mareike Ohlberg discusses how China's Communist Party is trying to whitewash the country's image with the help of Western influencers, including business and political representatives. She explains how, for example, foreign vloggers, mostly young people living in China, travel to Xinjiang to show "how it really is." Some of them are freelancers working for China's party-state media, others insist they are independent. Their videos, some filmed with cell phone cameras and others professionally edited, are meant to refute that China is committing serious human rights crimes against the Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the region.

In addition, Ohlberg states that foreign companies that think their presence in the region will improve the situation on the ground are in fact whitewashing a policy that no one should whitewash. According to her, it is virtually impossible to be present in the region without being entangled in some way in the myriad human rights abuses.