Urumqi, China, Nov 18, 2019 \/ 05:01 pm (CNA).- The Chinese government is defending its policy of mass detention and re-education of Muslims in the country's northwest as an appropriate measure against terrorism, following a New York Times report that showed the direct involvement of senior government officials in ordering the policy.
Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, criticized the newspaper\u2019s report Nov. 18, saying it smeared China\u2019s efforts against extremism, but not disputing the authenticity of the leaked documents, The Times reported Monday.
The Xinjiang government said the earlier Times article was \u201ccompletely fabricated by hostile forces at home and abroad \u2026 America\u2019s New York Times has again fabricated and concocted fake news about Xinjiang. This is nothing more than getting up to its old tricks, and is completely unworthy of refutation. This despicable conduct will surely be met with the contempt of wiser minds in the international community.\u201d
The Times reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping laid the groundwork for the development of the mass detentions in a series of private speeches to officials in 2014 in which he called for \u201cabsolutely no mercy\u201d toward 'terrorists'.
In Urumqi on April 30, 2014, Xi said that \u201cthe psychological impact of extremist religious thought on people must never be underestimated. People who are captured by religious extremism \u2014 male or female, old or young \u2014 have their consciences destroyed, lose their humanity and murder without blinking an eye.\u201d
In another speech in Xinjiang, Xi stated: \u201cThere must be effective educational remolding and transformation of criminals \u2026 even after these people are released, their education and transformation must continue.\u201d
According to the Times, 403 pages of documents, nearly half of which were speeches from Xi and other leaders, were leaked to it \u201cby a member of the Chinese political establishment who \u2026 expressed hope that their disclosure would prevent party leaders, including Mr. Xi, from escaping culpability for the mass detentions.\u201d
Among the documents, the Times said, are a model script for officials encountering returning university students who ask what has happened to their disappeared family members.
In the script from officials in Turpan, 120 miles southeast of Urumqi, the students were to be told that if their family members \u201cdon\u2019t undergo study and training, they\u2019ll never thoroughly and fully understand the dangers of religious extremism \u2026 No matter what age, anyone who has been infected by religious extremism must undergo study.\u201d
The students would be told to \u201ctreasure this chance for free education that the party and government has provided to thoroughly eradicate erroneous thinking, and also learn Chinese and job skills,\u201d which \u201coffers a great foundation for a happy life for your family.\u201d
If the students asked if their relatives had committed any crime, they were to be told that while they hadn't, \u201cit is just that their thinking has been infected by unhealthy thoughts \u2026 freedom is only possible when this 'virus' in their thinking is eradicated and they are in good health.\u201d
The documents also detail the government's reaction to officials deemed to be inadequately zealous in the repression of the Uighurs.
Wang Yongzhi was appointed to run Yarkant county, 830 miles southwest of Urumqi, in 2014. Wang had detention facilities built which housed 20,000 people, but expressed misgivings about the policy, and released some 7,000 internees. After that, he was \u201cdetained, stripped of power and prosecuted\u201d in 2017, according to the Times.
Xinjiang has experienced some terrorist attacks, including a massive knife attack at a train station in 2014 in which 31 people were killed and 141 wounded, but the Chinese government has repressed reports about the extent of the attacks, the Times reports.
The main victims of the Chinese crackdown on Muslims in the region are an ethnic group called the Uighurs. An estimated 1 million Uighurs have been detained in re-education camps in Xinjiang in the past three years, as part of a widespread effort by the government to \u201cSinicize\u201d religion in the country.
Inside the camps they are reportedly subjected to forced labor, torture, and political indoctrination. Outside the camps, Uighurs are monitored by pervasive police forces and facial recognition technology.
The Chinese government at one time denied the camps even existed, but has since shifted to defending its actions as a reasonable response to a national security threat.
Government officials from the region said in July that the area's re-education camps for Muslims have been successful, with most of those held having been reintegrated into Chinese society.
Uighurs can be arrested and detained under vague anti-terrorism laws. Violence in the region escalated in the 1990s and again in 2008.
During a Sept. 23 UN event on religious freedom, US vice president Mike Pence mentioned that \u201cthe Communist Party in China has arrested Christian pastors, banned the sale of Bibles, demolished churches, and imprisoned more than a million Uighurs in the Muslim population,\u201d and a fact sheet issued by the White House said the administration \u201cis deeply concerned\u201d for the interned Uighurs.
And the US State Department hosted a panel on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Sept. 24 to draw attention to the \u201chuman rights crisis in Xinjiang,\u201d where partipants heard first-hand accounts of repression of Muslim groups in Xinjiang.
John Sullivan, deputy secretary of state, said at the panel that \u201cThe UN must seek the immediate, unhindered, and unmonitored access to Xinjiang for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The United Nations, including its member states, have a responsibility to stand up for the human rights of people everywhere, including Muslims in Xinjiang. We urge the UN to investigate and closely monitor China\u2019s rights abuses, including the repression of religious freedom and belief.\u201d
\u201cWe cannot be the only guardians of the truth nor the only members of the international community to call out China and demand that they stop,\u201d Sullivan stated.
Pakistan is among the few Muslim-majority countries to have warned against the escalating persecution of the Uighurs.
The US Commerce Department in October added 28 Chinese organizations to a blacklist barring them from buying products from US companies, saying they cooperate in the detention and repression of the Uighurs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Urumqi, China, Nov 18, 2019 \/ 05:01 pm (CNA).- The Chinese government is defending its policy of mass detention and re-education of Muslims in the country's northwest as an appropriate measure against terrorism, following a New York Times report that showed the direct involvement of senior government officials in ordering the policy.
\nGeng Shuang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, criticized the newspaper\u2019s report Nov. 18, saying it smeared China\u2019s efforts against extremism, but not disputing the authenticity of the leaked documents, The Times reported Monday.
\nThe Xinjiang government said the earlier Times article was \u201ccompletely fabricated by hostile forces at home and abroad \u2026 America\u2019s New York Times has again fabricated and concocted fake news about Xinjiang. This is nothing more than getting up to its old tricks, and is completely unworthy of refutation. This despicable conduct will surely be met with the contempt of wiser minds in the international community.\u201d
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