Washington, DC: Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, a Harvard PhD and professor at Columbia University, has come under heavy fire from Dr. Mamtimin Ala, the president of the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE), for his recent pro-China remarks.
In a widely shared video, Dr. Sachs characterized China as “not an enemy” and presented it as a “success story,” stating that the true cause of its tense ties with the US is its economy, which is now bigger than the US’s. He said that just because China and the US compete economically, the US sees China as an enemy.
In response to Sachs’ comments, Dr. Ala went to X to voice his disagreement and charge the academic with having a strong prejudice.
As he said in a post, “When scholars are deeply biased, their words resemble a crooked spoon in water.” While Sachs vehemently criticizes the US, Dr. Ala said that he ignores important and concerning aspects of China’s behavior, such as its autocratic government, repression of free expression, and assertive foreign policy.
He denounced China’s persistent violations of human rights, especially the Xinjiang genocide, its military threats to Australia and Taiwan, and its practice of stealing technology from international businesses.
Dr. Ala also emphasized China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which he says deliberately ensnares other nations in debt, and its vast monitoring network, which it uses to manipulate its people via a social credit system.
Dr. Ala also brought up China’s involvement in the COVID-19 epidemic, which has devastated the world, and asked how these acts could be disregarded in the laudation of China. “What constitutes an enemy if these actions don’t qualify as hostile?” he asked bluntly as he ended his article.
Dr. Ala is the head of ETGE, a group that supports Xinjiang’s independence. He received his doctorate in philosophy from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.
His book, “Worse Than Death: Reflections on the Uyghur Genocide,” which explores the continued oppression of the Uyghur community in China, was written by him. Dr. Ala has been outspoken in his advocacy work against the Uyghur community’s human rights abuses, like forced labor and cultural repression.
