The Qiao Collective is a media outlet ¹ that supports the People’s Republic of China ¹ and tries to influence an English-speaking audience. ¹ Qiao Collective focuses its commentary on Chinese politics including Chinese labor, Hong Kong protests, and the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, according to a University of California, Irvine report. ¹

The UC Irvine report stated that Qiao Collective’s funding and background “is not transparent,” and this has led to speculation about potential ties with the Chinese government. ¹ Since it began, the Qiao Collective has never stated who its members are and who contributes to its posts. ¹

Many of the contributors to the Qiao Collective are described as “diasporic Chinese nationalists,” or Chinese people who have left China. ²

Background

The Qiao Collective began as a personal account on the social media Twitter platform. In a few months, the account gained close to 15,000 followers. ³

By November 2021, the Qiao Collective Twitter account had 49,784 followers and as of July 2024, the number of followers had increased to 56,000. A University of California, Irvine report stated that Qiao Collective uses Twitter as their main distribution platform. Twitter, now known as X, is banned in China. ¹

Political figures described as “leftists” such as Vijay Prashad and Nick Estes have supported the Qiao Collective. ³ Prashad is the executive director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research as well as an author, historian, and Marxist journalist. ⁴ Estes is an assistant professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. ²

Portrayal of China

The University of California, Irvine report stated that the Qiao Collective posts “positive, often revisionist perspectives about Chinese politics.”  That report stated that Qiao Collective claims that the “West’s perceptions of China as a human rights violator are actually the opposite; China is benevolent in helping marginalized people.” ¹

The UC Irvine report stated that the Qiao Collective is particularly sympathetic with regard to how China treats the Uyghur people. ¹ On Aug. 31, 2022, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report stating that the “Chinese government’s rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang ‘may constitute … crimes against humanity.’” ⁵

The left-of-center Human Rights Watch stated that since 2017, the Chinese government has carried out “a widespread and systematic” attack against the Uyghur people that included mass detention, torture, religious persecution, separation of families, forced labor and sexual violence. ⁵

The UC Irvine report stated that the Qiao Collective “assert[s]” that re-education camps do not exist and the camps were built to “deradicalize” extremists so they can get proper training to live on their own. UC Irvine’s report stated that Qiao claimed the camps teach Uyghurs to “better function in the economy,” learn technical skills, and they are allowed to go home a couple times per week to see their families. ¹

Support for Palestinians

In 2020, the Qiao Collective posted on the X social media platform that Israel had shut down a Palestinian COVID‐19 testing site and the U.S. had shipped one million masks to Israel for Israel Defense Force soldiers. It also stated China had sent 10,000 tests and ventilators to Palestinians, and Chinese doctors are sharing their expertise on COVID-19 with Palestinian doctors because China is an ally to the Palestinian cause. ¹

In a March 7, 2024, post on the Qiao Collective website, author Charles Xu quoted China’s Ma Xinmin, a legal advisor for China’s Foreign Ministry, as saying that Palestinians’ use of force to “resist foreign oppression” and make an independent state was an “inalienable right.” ⁶

1. Lev Nachman. Adrian Fauchfleisch. Brian Hioe. University Of California-Irvine. How China Divides The Left: Competing Transnational Left-Wing Alternative Media On Twitter. July 28, 2022. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/48n9r73f
2. University Of Minnesota. College Of Liberal Arts. Nick Estes. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/nestes
3. Brian Hioe. “The Qiao Collective And Left Diasporic Chinese Nationalism”; New Bloom. June 22, 2022. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://newbloommag.net/2020/06/22/qiao-collective-nationalism/
4. Tricontinental: Institute For Social Research. About. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://thetricontinental.org/institutes/
5. Human Rights Watch. China: Unrelenting Crimes Against Humanity Targeting Uyghurs. Aug. 31, 2023. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/31/china-unrelenting-crimes-against-humanity-targeting-uyghurs?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwO20BhCJARIsAAnTIVTOpguN117cx_qD5T1_z5Y2MtB4LuO_1BipOksDgYn2v-xPkVntQskaAoLhEALw_wcB
6. Charles Xu. “The Gates Of The Great Continent: Palestine, China, And The War For Humanity’s Future”; Qiao Collective. March 7, 2024. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://www.qiaocollective.com/articles/palestine-china