By Liu Guoqiang
FOR the past few years, the United States has been using the vocational education and training centers in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as a pretext to attack China’s human rights record and gain the upper hand in its strategic competition with China.
From the second half of 2017, the US and some other Western countries have ramped up their attacks against these centers, claiming they are “prisons” where the “religious freedom and human rights” of the “ethnic minority groups” are trampled upon. Such lies have invoked violent criticisms in the West against China.
The documentary, Lies and Truth Vocational Education and Training in Xinjiang, was telecast on China Central Television on Aug 24. Loaded with facts and cases, the documentary in four parts Source of Violence and Terror, Road to Rebirth, Light of Hope, and Voice of Justice shows the welcome changes in the trainees after graduation.
The documentary, telecast across the border, also enables global viewers to get the real knowledge about the centers. The aim of Xinjiang’s vocational education and training centers is to safeguard people’s human rights, not to violate them. The vocational schools strictly follow the people-first policy, and have been established in accordance with the law.
In the centers, the customs of all ethnic groups, their right to converse in their own language and freedom of religious beliefs are fully protected and respected.
The centers offer courses in such fields as e-commerce, hotel management, hairdressing, beauty therapy, and the candidates can choose any one which they think would help them get a job and lead a better life.
The centers have helped restore social stability in the region. Xinjiang has set up these centers based on the ground realities in the region to root out terrorism and religious extremism. Thanks to the education and training, the trainees have freed themselves of the influence of terrorism and religious extremism. In fact, Xinjiang has not seen any terrorist attacks for three consecutive years, and with religious extremism under control, public security has greatly improved in the region.
The centers are testament to China’s success in the fight against terrorism and radicalization. The measures taken by the centers are essentially no different from the de-radicalization and anti-terrorism measures of many other countries.
Given the brutal terrorist attacks in the past, Xinjiang’s counterterrorism campaign has been universally acknowledged, not least because it has safeguarded people’s lives and property, and ethnic minority groups’ religious freedom, while making great contributions to the global anti-terrorist causes.
Xinjiang’s centers have been praised by the foreign journalists and officials who have visited the region, including those from Muslim countries.
After watching the documentary, many people have come to know the truth about the centers and understood the urgency, necessity, legitimacy and rationality to set up the vocational education and training centers, because without the centers, regional stability may not have been restored so fast and smoothly.
Only truth can end the wave of lies the US has woven around Xinjiang. The wealth of facts in the documentary nails the lies and rumors being spread by the US and some other Western countries. And it means the US can no longer use the “Xinjiang card” to contain China.
Xinjiang, which enjoys stability, ethnic unity and religious harmony, is the best proof of the effectiveness of China’s policy to root out terrorism and religious extremism.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
