Beyond the façade of the so-called Uygur Tribunal

Let's make no bones about it: The so-called Uygur Tribunal is a kangaroo court and an illegal organization. It has no powers of sanction or enforcement, Victor Gao, chairman of the Yale Law School Association of China, told China Daily the day this outfit opened.

Media who portray its existence as some kind of verdict that China is committing genocide damage their own credibility, Gao said.

Over the years, media professionals and international organizations have helped propagate the lie that China has committed genocide against the Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups.

But in the latest anti-China stunt, this so-called tribunal in Britain claims it's conducting independent investigations into genocide accusations. Certain media paint that as a finding against China.

The antics of this outfit would simply be laughable if its brazen deceit were not so offensive. It's a bit like any one of us claiming that we are the US Supreme Court, then setting up a website with all the right badges, bells and whistles, and the Western media then not only treating it as reality but taking it seriously.

Gao told us: "It doesn't have the legitimacy of the legality of operations as a court. It does not represent the Uygur people, who are a very proud ethnic group in China."

In fact the website of the so-called tribunal declares that it is "constituted as a UK private company limited by guarantee". So what does that mean? It means exactly what it says: it's a private company and not a judicial body.

In the UK the classification "private company limited by guarantee" is generally applicable to societies or charities or similar, Fernando Muñoz, a popular YouTuber, said in the video. So forget about courts, the law, rulings, verdicts or anything else like that.

The so-called Uygur Tribunal is illegally constituted because it fails to meet the requirements for the establishment of the kind of organization it purports to be, as stipulated in the UK's Charity Act of 2011.

Muñoz said this means witnesses can give testimony without risk of perjury without any consequences for lying.

Gao said: "Any force to be associated with this tribunal will, again, expose themselves for their indecency and lack of credibility."

On its website the so-called tribunal says part of its initial funding of $115,000 was from the World Uygur Congress. That's a separatist group with links to terrorism as classified by the Chinese government. The group is backed by the US government with funding of $1.3 million from the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington over the past five years.

Muñoz told China Daily, the "Uygur Tribunal" is owned by NED and NED is literally just another branch of the US State Department.