Selling rebellion: Does marketing skills matter?

The rights of oppressed peoples around the world increasingly gain media and scholarly attention. However, for every group who gets worldwide recognition of their cause, there are numerous others who remain unnoticed. As Clifford Bob explains, even in the world of Human Rights, there is a marketing game to be played if one is to be successful. Here are some examples.

For decades, Tibet’s quest for self-determination has attracted people around the world. Inspired by appeals to human rights, cultural preservation and spiritual awakening, thousands of individuals and organizations lend moral, material and financial support to the Tibetan cause.

As a result, greater autonomy for Tibet’s 5 million inhabitants remains a popular international campaign despite the Chinese government’s 50 year effort to suppress it. But while Tibet’s light shines brightly abroad, few outsiders know that China’s borders hold other restive minorities. Mongols, Zhuang, Yi, and Hui, to name only a few.

Notable are the Uighurs, a group of more than 7 million located northwest of Tibet. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs fought Chinese domination for centuries, enjoying brief periods of independence twice in the 20th century. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs today face threats from Chinese in migration, centrally planned development policies and newly strengthened anti-terror measures.

If, as the Dalai Lama has warned, Tibetan ethnicity, culture, and environment face “extinction,” the Uighurs’ surely do too. And like the Tibetans, the Uighurs resist Chinese domination with domestic and international protest that, in Beijing’s eyes, makes them dangerous