Marriott said nothing when the Saudi government commandeered the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh as a torture and murder site and Marriott’s last CEO and current one both parroted Chinese President Xi’s talking points on the government’s Covid-19 response. Marriott has even pre-emptively removed banned books from a hotel in China and fired a social media staffer for offending the regime.
Now Hilton may be planning to build a hotel in China over a bulldozed Uyghur mosque.
Hilton Hotels has allegedly inked a deal with Chinese Communist authorities to build a new property at the site of a Uyghur mosque bulldozed by the government — and the hotel chain is refusing to comment on reports of the plan.
…the land where the Duling Mosque used to stand in Hotan, part of Xinjiang province, was sold at public auction to a local developer. That developer, the magazine reported, then signed a contract to develop a Hampton by Hilton Hotel.
…Propaganda on the construction site’s walls urges those passing by the structure to “warmly celebrate the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary.”
The Chinese government has engaged in ethnic cleaning against the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, detaining approximately a million people over the past 5 years and subjecting them to abuse and re-education, forcing them to denounce their religion.
Exact details of practices are difficult to confirm because of China’s crackdown on media, which now extends to Hong Kong where Apple Daily has closed after a raid on its newsroom and arrest of several of its principals.
Increasingly it doesn’t look possible to do a material amount of business in authoritarian regimes without compromising on what Google used to call ‘don’t be evil’. Even privacy-focused Apple uses a separate Chinese company’s servers to store data in China. I’ve had many great trips to China, but sadly it’s probably advisable for me not to return.
Well Well Well Hilton what do you do now? Of course most know that Hilton has a great portion of it franchised Hilton’s owned by Chinese investors.
Tell me the difference in this versus say bulldozing a major church/Mosque/Temple ?
That Hilton needs some Tegridy.
after the Feb power crisis, i won’t be returning to texas and some of you should think of avoiding it too
gary you are a *** piece of *** did you mention the mosque was rebuilt somewhere.lying ******
@anon: The Chinese government bulldozed a Uyghur mosque in Texas?
Google simply enhanced their slogan to: be evil. They felt that between customer demand and to accurately reflect their corporate ethical standards it was the correct move to make.
The Pantheon was a church for 15 centuries and a pagan temple for all Roman Gods for 3 centuries before that and now it’s a tourist attraction. We built cities above sacred native burial grounds after we exacted genocide on them … so forgive me if I don’t get your selective outrage!
Was the said mosque built on a sacred grounds? I doubt it as the Profit and his reverend disciples lived mostly in the Arabian peninsula and the levant!
The enslavement and genocide of ethnic and religious minorities is ok if it is done by the CCP. Anyone who speaks out against the CCP will be punished harshly.
It’s a shame that this blog has turned into political discussion. This site I thought was for travel perks and travel tips. You know how many American do you think will be staying in Hilton Urumqi? I traveled to China on many occasions, most foreign business professional were more likely to be Europeans and Japanese. Not many fellow American. Chinese hotels are catered to Chinese and Europeans. Genocide has never been proven except words used by Pompeo and Trump gangs. The latest G7 meeting many Europeans were reluctant make joint statement with US. You know we can impose our views on rest of the world because of our purchasing power. Guess what, China has that ability now too.
Gary a credit to you for mentioning this. Thank you. It is important to a portion of your readers.
We understand not everyone is sensitive to these situations. Its ok, let them be. Everyone here on earth has their own evolution paths and leaning.
A
@craig mason thats not how analogies work!
It’s amazing how quickly China opened to the west just a few decades ago and how quickly things are now changing.
I’m not so sure that this is such a good idea. Does Hilton Corp. review, discuss and weigh their decisions?