China’s campaign of pressure against the nation’s Uighur Muslim minority has prevented Xinjiang from “becoming ‘China’s Syria’ or ‘China’s Libya,’” the Global Times said yesterday.
The newspaper editorial came after a UN anti-discrimination committee on Friday raised concerns over China’s treatment of Uighurs, citing reports of mass detentions that is said “resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy.”
Following attacks by radical Muslim separatists, hundreds of thousands of members of the Uighur and Kazakh Muslim minorities in Xinjiang have been arbitrarily detained in indoctrination camps where they are forced to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Global Times said the intense regulations in the region were merely “a phase that Xinjiang has to go through in rebuilding peace and prosperity.” without directly mentioning the existence of the internment camps.
Denouncing what it called “destructive Western public opinions,” the paper said, “peace and stability must come above all else.”
“Through the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, the national strength of the country and the contribution of local officials, Xinjiang has been salvaged from the verge of massive turmoil,” the paper said. “It has avoided the fate of becoming ‘China’s Syria’ or ‘China’s Libya.’”
Over recent months, monitoring groups and eyewitnesses say Uighurs have been summoned from abroad and across China and sent into detention and indoctrination centers.
When the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination started reviewing China’s report in Geneva on Friday, Chinese Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Yu Jianhua (俞建華) highlighted economic progress and rising living standards among other things.
Committee vice chairwoman Gay McDougall said members are “deeply concerned” by “numerous and credible reports that we have received that, in the name of combating religious extremism and maintaining social stability, [China] has turned the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy.”
McDougall said there were estimates that more than a million people “are being held in so-called counter-extremism centers and another 2 million have been forced into so-called re-education camps for political and cultural indoctrination.”
When the committee continued its hearing yesterday, the Chinese delegation rejected the allegations that 1 million Uighurs might be held in internment camps.
China has clamped down on “extremist and terrorist crimes” in Xinjiang in accordance with the law, and does not target any ethnic minority or seek the “de-Islamization” of region, it said. “Those deceived by religious extremism ... shall be assisted by resettlement and re-education.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese