Brian Berletic hosts The New Atlas, a YouTube channel in which he analyses and comments mostly on Eastern geopolitics from a Western perspective.

He is an American who now lives in Asia.

In short, the mainstream claim is that China—or more accurately, the Chinese government— is detaining millions of Uyghur Muslims in camps in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, forcing them into labour, sterilising them and trying to erase their culture and religion through a genocide.

It is not, however, committing genocide.

Accusations of genocide against the Uyghurs have become a staple of anti-China campaigning in the West, not because of the merits of the case, but because of the convenience it offers to anti-PRC messaging and policies.

This, if the establishment is to be believed, is apparently part of a deliberate effort to commit ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses.

Except that it doesn't make sense.

Actually, the evidentiary basis for birth genocide is extremely weak, mainly because the Uyghur population has been growing, not declining.

Brian says that it's Western propaganda used to perpetuate an anti-China narrative, much like the false claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction that justified the Iraq War. In 1990, a woman named Nayirah al-Sabah gave a testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, claiming that Iraqi soldiers had taken babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, causing their deaths.

This story was used to drum support for America’s invasion of Iraq.

It was later revealed that her testimony was nonsense and part of a propaganda campaign.

In other words, she lied.

There’s no genocide in Xinjiang—all the ‘Uyghur genocide’ narratives are U.S.-funded disinformation and smear campaigns against China.

— Li Jingjing, journalist

I went to Xinjiang in 2025

Not many people I personally know have been to the Chinese province in question.

In fact, now that I think about it, I don't know anyone who has—except, obviously, those I travelled with.

And despite some people falsely claiming I went there on a journalist visa, I went on a standard tourist visa. Because I'm not a journalist, and never have been. Due to the sensitive geopolitical nature of Xinjiang—especially Western attempts to destabilise the region and disrupt the Belt & Road Initiative—entering Xinjiang required special permission.

Xinjiang is a huge province—bigger than South Africa.

It's also autonomous, meaning, like Hong Kong, it operates somewhat differently from the rest of China, particularly surrounding cultural and ethnic policies.

Most police I saw are Uyghurs.

While driving between cities, I recorded the following conversation with Chinese historian Carl Zha, who gave me the history of Xinjiang and the Uyghurs.

We also happened to go to a restaurant, in Kashgar, where a Uyghur wedding was taking place.

It was spectacular.

For a population apparently being wiped out by the Chinese government, they sure know how to party like it's their last night.

The following conversation with Brian, however, specifically focuses on the fake genocide claims pushed by Western intelligence and linked groups.

🎙️ Podcast episode

There’s a lot to digest and Brian does a good job at summarising everything, but I recommend looking into, not just the genocide claims, but the sources of those claims.

You’ll likely find a link to a handful of suspicious anti-China actors based in the US, like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) who are also behind anti-China cults like Falun Gong.