Maintaining peace and stability in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is in the interests of the people of all the 47 ethnic groups who live there. Which is why that is the government’s bottom line. And why it has introduced measures, with vocational education and training centers as the core, to prevent vulnerable Uygurs living in remote areas from being brainwashed by secessionists and terrorists. The US criticism of these stabilizers in Xinjiang is politically motivated, as indicated by its open endorsement of the so-called World Uygur Congress, and other secessionist organizations and figures related to Xinjiang.
When thousands of terrorist attacks happened in Xinjiang, before the establishment of the current comprehensive anti-terrorist mechanism, Washington lauded the terrorists as freedom fighters. Now that Xinjiang has restored its long-lost peace and prosperity no violent incidents have happened in the past three years, and the local economy has grown by 40 percent over the past five years Washington is using the anti-terrorism initiatives in Xinjiang as another excuse to censure Beijing.
The latest case in point being the campaign it instigated at a conference of the UN human rights committee on Tuesday, in which the US and 22 other countries criticized China’s anti-terrorist practices in Xinjiang as being violations of human rights. This charge was firmly refuted by more than 60 other countries, which commended China for its counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in the region and for upholding people’s rights to life, health and development. But Washington will no doubt belittle their words, as it always speaks ill of those having different views from it. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation was fiercely criticized by the US after it acknowledged China’s efforts to care for Muslims in March. Nor will it send representatives to Xinjiang to see what is really happening in the region, preferring instead to cite hearsay as justification of its criticism of Beijing.
Considering the criticism UN Under Secretary-General for Counterterrorism Vladimir Voronkov received from Washington after he visited Xinjiang in June, part of China’s normal anti-terrorist cooperation with the United Nations, it is no surprise that Washington has been pressuring UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet not to visit Xinjiang, despite China cordially and repeatedly inviting her to do so, to see for herself what is happening in the region. Washington’s attempts to impede any visit by Bachelet stem from its fear that she may find a totally different picture in Xinjiang to one it is painting for example the number of mosques, about 25,000, is 10 times the number in the US and local people’s religious freedom is strictly protected.
