Falsehood: The United States stands with countries and people around the world against the genocide and crimes against humanity happening in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million people have been placed in detention camps because of their ethnic and religious identity.
Reality Check: The human rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are fully protected. There is no “genocide” or “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang. The US has been spreading disinformation about Xinjiang simply to create an excuse for discrediting and attacking China.
◆ Xinjiang-related issues are not about human rights, but about fighting violence, terrorism and separatism. According to figures available, between 1990 and the end of 2016, there were several thousand incidents of violent and terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, killing large numbers of innocent people and hundreds of police officers, and causing immeasurable property damage.
In response to such real threats, Xinjiang has acted resolutely to fight terrorism and extremism in accordance with law. At the same time, a series of supporting measures have been taken, like improving people’s livelihoods, raising public awareness about law, and offering help through vocational education and training centers. The trend of frequent terrorist activities has thus been effectively curbed. There has been no violent act of terrorism in Xinjiang for five consecutive years and more. The region has enjoyed security, social stability and good development. The safety and security of people of all ethnic groups have been effectively protected.
◆ “Genocide” in Xinjiang is a complete “lie of the century”. Over the past 60 years and more, the Uyghur population has increased from 2.2 million to about 12 million, and their average life expectancy has grown from 30 to 75 years.
With stability prevailing in Xinjiang, local people live and work in peace and happiness. The region has made unprecedented progress in delivering economic and social development and in bettering people’s lives. Between 2014 and 2019, GDP in Xinjiang rose from 919.59 billion yuan to 1.36 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 7.2 percent, while per capita disposable income grew by an average annual rate of 9.1 percent. Remarkable achievements have been made in eliminating extreme poverty. All 3.09 million impoverished people by current standards have been lifted out of poverty, making absolute poverty a thing of the past in Xinjiang.
The lawful rights and interests of the people of all ethnicities in Xinjiang have been protected effectively. All ethnic groups, regardless of their populations, have equal legal status and enjoy freedom of religious belief and various rights in accordance with law, including participating in the management of state affairs, receiving education, using their own languages, and preserving their traditional culture.
◆ In July 2019, permanent representatives of more than 50 countries in Geneva sent a joint letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, praising China’s achievements in fighting terrorism, deradicalization and human rights protection. In October 2019, more than 60 countries spoke at the Third Committee of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, commending the tremendous human rights advancement in Xinjiang. In June 2021, more than 90 countries made joint or separate statements at the Human Rights Council in support of China. In the meantime, Canada took the lead in attacking China on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet. Just a little over 40 countries echoed Canada’s criticism, and none of them are from the Muslim world.
◆ In recent years, over 2,000 people from more than 100 countries, including experts, scholars, journalists, diplomats and religious figures, have visited Xinjiang, witnessing the unity, harmony and happiness of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
◆ The so-called “genocide” in Xinjiang is a lie cooked up by anti-China forces represented by the anti-China German scholar Adrian Zenz. He is a member of the far-right group “Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation” sponsored by the US government, and a key figure in an anti-China organization set up by US intelligence agencies. He is also a racist. His “research” is full of inconsistencies, fabrications and data manipulation. It does not have any academic credibility and cannot be cleared for academic publication. For example, a chart in Zenz’s “paper” claims that new IUD placements in Xinjiang average between 800 and 1,400 per person each year, which means each woman in the region would have to undergo four to eight such insertion surgeries every day. This is totally against common sense.
◆ On 29 June 2020, the Jamestown Foundation of the US published a “research report” by Adrian Zenz, in which he falsely accused the Chinese government of committing “genocide” against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Upon the release of the report, US politicians including then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, Senator Marco Rubio and House Representative Jim McGovern immediately pitched in to whip up the “genocide” accusation. Rubio, McGovern, Senator John Cornyn and Senator Robert Menendez went on to urge the administration to make a genocide determination of China’s policy on Xinjiang. Contradicting the conclusion reached by lawyers at the State Department Office of the Legal Adviser, Pompeo announced that “I have determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups” on 19 January 2021, the last day of the previous administration. The current administration has followed the same position and continued to allege “genocide” in Xinjiang. This further exposes the US’s real intention of political manipulation in the name of human rights.
◆ The World Uyghur Congress, an anti-China separatist organization, hired people like Sayragul Sauytbay and Tursunay Ziawudun to make false statements and spread all kinds of lies about “persecution”. In the 70-plus press conferences held so far by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, falsehoods spread by anti-China forces have been debunked with solid facts. For instance, some “performers” who claimed to be the victims of forced sterilization in vocational education and training centers have never been to one. The family members or friends reported by some “performers” as missing are actually living a normal life in Xinjiang.
◆ The false claim about “millions of Uyghurs detained” in education and training centers was initiated and spread by “Chinese Human Rights Defenders”, an NGO supported by the US government. Based on interviews with eight Uyghurs and rough estimation, the organization came to the preposterous conclusion that at least 10 percent of the 20 million people in Xinjiang are detained in “reeducation camps”.
The education and training centers in Xinjiang are no different in nature from deradicalization centers or community correction and desistance and disengagement programs in many other countries. It has been proven to be a successful exploration in preventative counter-terrorism and deradicalization, consistent with the principle and spirit of counter-terrorism resolutions including the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism. At the centers, trainees acquire greater proficiency in standard spoken and written Chinese language and employability, and gain a stronger sense of national identity, citizenship and rule of law. By October 2019, all trainees had graduated from the centers. Most of them have steady employment after finding jobs by themselves or with the help of the government, or starting up their own businesses.
◆ The US and some other Western countries have been making an issue of human rights in Xinjiang in total disregard of the basic reality of human rights protection and development there. It has become a means for them to achieve their strategic objective of using Xinjiang as a pretext to contain China. Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired US Army Colonel and chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said publicly in August 2018 that one of the three-fold purpose of the US military's presence in Afghanistan is the containment of China — “If the CIA would want to destabilize China, that would be the best way to do it – to form an unrest, and join with those Uyghurs in pushing ... Beijing from internal places rather than external”.
Full text:
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