A farm machine works in a field in Yuli County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 28, 2021. (Photo by Wang Zhipeng/Xinhua)
"ALWAYS THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH"
"Where does your courage to speak the truth come from in the midst of the Western media hype about Xinjiang?" This is the question of Hurixdam Ablikim, a journalism student, whose goal is to show the real Xinjiang to the world.
"The job of journalists is to reflect realities, whereas in the West, their job is to lie," lamented the veteran journalist. "If I have any advice for you, it is to reveal the truth, always the truth and nothing but the truth."
Vivas said that he had checked everything in his book with "extreme thoroughness." "Not only are there no lies in my book, there are no mistakes," he noted.
After the publication of the book, the writer recalled that there was a media rampage against him, "which is by no means surprising."
"What I am criticized for is not the content of my book, it is for having written a book that is not an anti-Chinese book," Vivas said.
The writer has declined all interviews with French newspapers. "The media that wanted to interview me all tried to set up a trap for me, and it was always a kind of police interrogation instead of the normal interviews about a book," he said.
He noted now there are a lot of writers and journalists in France who think China as he does, but they cannot speak out "under the media pressure."
"With permanent lies about Xinjiang, people can only see the lies," Vivas said. "I said to myself that maybe we need to reestablish the truth."
In a few months, a book about China written by 15 intellectuals from different countries, edited by Vivas, will be published in France. "This is my way of continuing to work to spread the truth about China," he added.
