Iran's Press TV finds an "outside interference" echo in China

How stupidly clever are the media organs of a police state.

The Iranian government, working night and day to blame the mass election protests on the reliable old bogey of Western manipulation, found an echo in the Chinese government's blaming of the Uighur riots on a prominent Uighur in exile, Rebiya Kadeer, head of a group called the World Uighur Congress.

While the Chinese charges against Ms. Kadeer are probably trumped up, they are relentlessly focused on her and the Congress -- with no suggestion of Western government support. But you'd never know that glancing at the story on Press TV, the Iranian government organ.

"In China, overseas forces blamed for Xinjiang protest" screams the headline. The phrasing is echoed in the lede, then followed by a non sequitur:

With China's violence-stricken northwestern region of Xinjiang flooded with riot police, leaders of the country's ruling Communist Party blame overseas forces for the violence.

Li Zhi, head of the Communist Party in the center of the violence, Urumqi, said many people suspected of orchestrating the riots had been arrested, adding that some were students.

“To those who have committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them,” Li said at a press conference. “The small groups of the violent people have already been caught by the police. The situation is now under control.

You'd almost think the people orchestrating the riots were "overseas forces," wouldn't you -- and students to boot?

More than midway through the story comes the only substance to which the headline pertains:

Chinese government officials accuse US-exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer and her followers of being behind the violence.

Here, btw, is the tenor Xinhua's portrayal of the evidence that the World Uighar Congress instigated the riots. While it reads like an indictment of the Congress, again, there is no intimation of outside government involvement.

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The separatist World Uyghur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer was behind the deadly July 5 Urumqi riot, in which at least 156 people died and more than 1000 were injured, sources with the government said.

Evidence showed the riot was organized. It was instigated and masterminded by the World Uyghur Congress led by Kadeer, the sources said.

The Congress used the June 26 factory brawl between Uygur and Han ethnic workers in Guangdong Province, in which two Uygurs died, to create chaos.

On July 1, the Congress held a special meeting, plotting to instigate unrest by sending messages via the Internet, telephones and mobile phones.

On July 4, some people inside the country began to send out a flood of online posts encouraging people to go to the Renmin Square in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to protest on July 5 to support separatists abroad....

The Congress, an organization alleging to represent the ultimate interests of East Turkestan people, is wholly dedicated to masterminding secessionist activities in the name of human rights and democracy, the government said.