Daily Times

COVID-19 brought out the best in humanity as well as its worst. The world’s second largest economy-China-where the deadly pandemic was first reported successfully managed to insulate its residents and protect them from the epidemic spreading in an uncontrolled manner. It built hospitals, quarantine centers and isolation cells to shield its citizens and kept the death toll down stopping the onset. It then reached out to other countries, donating protection kits, ventilators and sharing its own experiences with them. Contrarily, the world’s largest economy, hurled accusations, banned diplomatic chanceries and business houses while it struggled to control the pandemic but suffered huge losses.

The Occident is venting its anger against China by hurling baseless accusations of its maltreatment of the ethnic Muslim minority the Uyghurs, who reside in Xinjiang.

This scribe has visited the length and breadth of Xinjiang and can comment on the issue as a neutral observer based on personal experiences, interviews and discussions with locals including those of Pakistani origin, settled in Xinjiang for over two and a half decades.

There is a plethora of fake news created by China’s detractors, which need to be debunked. It is alleged that the vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang are “concentration camps” detaining over one million Uyghurs. The truth is that the vocational education and training centers, established in accordance with law in Xinjiang, are no different in nature from the community corrections in the US, the Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP) in the UK, and the deradicalization centers in France. All of them are useful measures and positive explorations for preventive counter-terrorism and deradicalization and are in line with the principles and spirit of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and other counter-terrorism resolutions.

The stories of “slave labour” were created according to a US news website the Greyzone, the forced labour stories were in fact a PR blitz orchestrated by anti-China forces from the US and Australia

Cudgels have been picked up by an unstable Adrian Zenz, a born again Christian of the evangelical nature that is closely allied with the evangelical right-wing that currently dominates American politics. He is also part of the “Victims of Communism memorial foundation.” One should also not ignore the abject hypocrisy of a person that buddies up to theoretical dictatorships of the Middle-East whilst having a boner over the country that has lifted more people out of poverty than any other in history. Zenz believes now that he is on a god given mission against China but quotes dubious sources, some of whom belong to the extremist terrorist group, East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

It has been rumoured that the vocational education and training centres in Xinjiang carried out “political indoctrination and intimidation” over the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. Through personal visits this scribe found that the vocational education and training centres in Xinjiang provided courses on standard spoken and written Chinese language, legal knowledge, professional skills and de radicalization, to address the inadequate language proficiency, lack of legal literacy and job skills, as well as the varying degrees of religious extremism influence among their trainees. The purpose of the centres is to tackle terrorism and religious extremism at the root, not so-called “political indoctrination and intimidation” by any means.

It is alleged that Xinjiang’s special operations against violent terrorist activities aim to suppress ethnic minorities under the pretext of fighting terrorism. A visit to the “Terrorism Museum” in Urumqi depicts that Xinjiang had suffered long and deep from terrorism and extremism. Statistics show that from 1990 to 2016, ethnic separatists, religious extremists and violent terrorists plotted and conducted several thousand violent terrorist cases and incidents, killing a large number of innocent civilians and several hundred police officers, and causing immeasurable property losses. These incidents inflicted untold sufferings on the people of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Fake news has been fabricated that Mass forced labour against ethnic minorities is taking place in Xinjiang. The stories of “slave labour” were created according to a US news website the Grey zone, the forced labour stories were in fact a PR blitz orchestrated by anti-China forces from the US and Australia.

The stories were cooked up by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) which has long been funded by the US government and American arms dealers. To serve the interests of its sponsors, the institute blatantly spread disinformation to vilify and demonize China, particularly on Xinjiang-related issues. Together with anti-China forces in the US, the ASPI made up baseless and biased stories to smear and attack Xinjiang’s counter-terrorism and deradicalization efforts.

Ethnic minority workers from Xinjiang are part and parcel of the country’s labor force. They have the rights to be employed, sign labor contracts, obtain labor remunerations, take rest and vacations, acquire labor safety and health protection, and enjoy social insurance and welfare as prescribed by law. They have the freedom to choose their occupation. Their personal freedom has never been restricted.

Another fake news is that Xinjiang has demolished a large number of mosques. Contrarily, Xinjiang has seen sound development of the religion of Islam. The number of mosques in Xinjiang has grown from some 2,000 at the beginning of reform and opening-up in the late 1970s to 24,400 today. In Xinjiang, there is a mosque for every 530 Muslims on average. This scribe has offered prayers in numerous mosques in Xinjiang. Another malicious propaganda is that that the Chinese government forces sterilization, abortion and birth control on Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. In fact, the Chinese government protects the lawful rights and interests of all Chinese without distinction of ethnicity. Over the years, the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities have enjoyed a preferential population policy. In the four decades between 1978 and 2018, the Uyghur population in Xinjiang increased from 5.55 million to 11.68 million, accounting for 46.8% of the total population of the autonomous region.

It is time the baseless propaganda campaign against Xinjiang stops.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host, who has authored six books on current affairs, including three on China