Contributed by Joe Montero

Under  the Biden administration, the United States is trying hard to renew  its claim as the  defender of  democracy and human rights around the world. Yet no power has and continues to do more to undermine democracy and human rights. This  is the stark reality.

No other nation dots the world with military bases, starts more wars, or drops more bombs on innocent civilian populations. No one else has the record of installing and  propping up so many tinpot dictators, as long as  they work for the United States. Who else has imposed sanctions on more than 50 nations, which should be called, waging economic war, which brings suffering to the millions of civilians?

Some of the United States military bases around the world

This is a nation that has been at war with someone for all but about 20 years since its civil war in the 1860’s. Most of it has been for conquest.

Only the United States engages in large scale interference in the internal politics of other nations, financing and giving support to those willing to help the United States gain influence over their nation.

Australia’s political elite goes along with all of this without question. It is this that has led us into a series of unjustifiable wars based on, and this fact alone, is testimony to the extent of control that power has over the Australian political elite and political process. Australia lacks true independence.

About the lies. Washington is engaging in a new round of Donald Trump style info war against all those singled out as enemies. Enemies are those who are deemed to reject American geopolitical supremacy, whether it be Venezuela in Latin America, Iran in the Persian Gulf, and most importantly China. The manufactured narrative is saturating the conversation.

The latest phase of the offensive against China went into full swing with the 2019 events in Hong Kong. The much praised and backed democracy movement has been entirely something else. It has always been totally dependent on funding and support from Washington, used to create instability. Embassy officials were found to be planning strategy with leaders of this so-called democracy movement. but it served as a platform to talk war.

Those who followed the line conveniently forgot that Honk Kong is part of China. There are some issues that need resolution. But this is a matter for a sovereign nation, not for outsiders to impose their solution. Such an imposition is the reverse of defending democracy.

Now comes the charge of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The trouble with this is that little is based on truth. Those genuinely wanting to know something about what is going on should learn something about history.

This will be dealt with at greater length because the Xinjiang situation is central to the pivot towards war talk and Australia’s role in it.

Most Uyghurs live in the south of the region. It has missed out on much of China’s economic advance, is poorer, and many eke out their existence in dessert country. China has recognised this and since 2012 invested in lifting the local economy. Southern Xinjian has become an important link in the Belt and Road Initiative, which promotes economic links and trade to the West.

Politically, the situation took a turn for the worse after the assassination of moderate Islamic leader, 74-year-old  Iman Abdurehim Damaolla,  a leader of the Islamic Association, on 30 July 2014.

Local residents mill about the street in front of Abdurehim Damaolla’s house in Turpan city after he was assassinated

His killers are believed  to have been from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). This organisation is an affiliate of the  Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, which has a history of involvement with al Qaeda  since its inception in Afghanistan in the 1990’s.  Abdurehim Damaolla was a vocal opponent on the IMU. It had moved into Xinjiang, of being a key link of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which has carried out a series of bombings in Chinese cities that targeted soft civilian targets.

ETIM, which has a policy of removing non-Uyghurs from Xinjiang, is blamed for inciting street violence against moderate Muslims and people of other ethnicities. Although listed the United Nations and United States list of terrorist organisations, ETIM has become an important weapon for attacking China.

Alongside this is the use of East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. This was formed by Washington, declared in the capital building in 2004, where it remains headquartered to this day. It does not represent Uyghurs in Xinjiang, but it is useful in the info war. The stories about human rights abuses come from this Washington office and not from where they are supposed to be occurring.

Supporters of the Est Turkustan Government in Exile campaigning outside their headquarters in the Capitol Building in Washington.

This organisation falsely claims to have been elected in and Xinjiang has been under Chinese occupation since 1949. How could it, when it’s been in existence for less than 20 years? It publishes a continuous list of cases of supposed victims, concentration camps and slave labour, many of which have been proved to be false.

The Australian government, along with much of the media, present the propaganda from this source as the reality, despite the absence of evidence.

The disinformation strategy was first ramped up by Hilary Clinton, as the Secretary of State in the Obama administration. The regional plan had been to use victory in Afghanistan to push through the Caucuses and undo the building relationships between countries in this region with neighbouring China and Russia.

Failure in Afghanistan meant a new plan, and this was to shift to destabilising, by attacking the Belt and Road Initiative and support for the Jihadists Xinjiang. The plan continues under the pretence of defending democracy.

It is about reclaiming American global supremacy. This ambition is raising the prospect of war and the fanning of anti-Asian racism.

And Australia’s political elite is right in it. When the master whistles the dog wags its tail.