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China Accuses West of Double Standard on Xinjiang


Indian Muslims shout slogans during a protest against the Chinese government, in Mumbai, India, Sept. 14, 2018. Nearly 150 Indian Muslims demandedg that China stop holding thousands of members of minority Uighur Muslim ethnic group in detention and political indoctrination centers in Xinjiang region.
Indian Muslims shout slogans during a protest against the Chinese government, in Mumbai, India, Sept. 14, 2018. Nearly 150 Indian Muslims demandedg that China stop holding thousands of members of minority Uighur Muslim ethnic group in detention and political indoctrination centers in Xinjiang region.

The Western media is guilty of “double standards” when it comes to reporting on China’s restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, the official China Daily said in an editorial Friday.

China has faced an outcry from human rights groups, foreign governments and United Nations rights experts over what they say are mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim ethnic Uighur minority in Xinjiang.

Beijing has denied accusations that it is systematically violating the rights of Xinjiang’s Muslims, saying it is only cracking down on extremism and “splitism” in the region.

Uighurs and their supporters rally across the street from United Nations headquarters in New York, March 15, 2018.
Uighurs and their supporters rally across the street from United Nations headquarters in New York, March 15, 2018.

China claims Islamic threat

The China Daily said the “false picture” of Xinjiang in the foreign media was “aimed at smearing the Chinese government.”

“A double standard is put into service to serve this end: China, critics in the West say, only imagines it faces a terrorist threat, and it is just Western countries that face the real threat of violence born of extremism,” it said.

China says Xinjiang faces a threat from Islamist militants and separatists in an area where in recent years hundreds have been killed in unrest between Uighurs and members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

Responding to recent comments by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence that China is engaged in “religious persecution” in Xinjiang, the editorial said Muslims in the region were vulnerable to extremist overseas propaganda and needed education and vocational skills.

FILE - A police officer checks the identity card of a man as security forces keep watch in a street in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, March 24, 2017.
FILE - A police officer checks the identity card of a man as security forces keep watch in a street in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, March 24, 2017.

1 million detained

The U.N. human rights panel said in August that China is believed to be holding up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs in a secretive system of “internment camps” in Xinjiang, where they undergo political education.

Beijing has denied that such camps are for “political education” and says they are instead vocational training centers, part of government initiatives to bolster economic growth and social mobility in the region.

“The people of Xinjiang, who are of many ethnic groups, will definitely not allow a handful of bad apples to hijack the bright future of their common home,” the editorial said.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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