China yesterday lauded the success of its vocational and jobs schemes in the Xinjiang region, just days after the US government said they were being operated from facilities run like “concentration camps.”
Beijing has come under intense international criticism over its policies in the resource-rich region, where rights groups say as many as 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps.
US Customs and Border Protection on Monday said that it would bar a raft of Chinese products from Xinjiang over fears of forced labor.
Photo: AFP / Badung Police
“Religious and ethnic minorities are ... forced to work in heinous conditions with no recourse and no freedom,” it said.
“This is not a vocational center, it is a concentration camp,” US Acting Deputy Secretary Ken of Homeland Secretary Cuccinelli told reporters.
However, Beijing insists the centers are for vocational training, necessary for counterterrorism efforts and to provide education for alleviating poverty.
In its white paper published yesterday, it staunchly defended its policy in the region, where it says training programs, work schemes and better education mean life has improved.
Xinjiang has “vigorously implemented employment projects, enhanced vocational training, and expanded employment channels and capacity,” the report said, adding that vocational training for millions has improved the quality of the workforce.
“Xinjiang has built a large knowledge-based, skilled and innovative workforce that meets the requirements of the new era,” the report said.
Training includes teaching written and spoken Mandarin, labor skills and giving knowledge of urban life, it said, adding that rural people have started businesses or taken employment in factories after state support.
From 2014 to last year, Xinjiang gave annual “training sessions” to an average of 1.29 million urban and rural workers, the report said.
Employment policies “meet the people’s needs [and] improve their wellbeing,” it said.
However, the white paper said that there is a low level of vocational skills and that “terrorists, separatists and religious extremists” have encouraged the public not to learn Chinese, to “reject modern science and refuse to improve their vocational skills.”
Swedish clothing giant Hennes & Mauritz on Tuesday said that it was ending its relationship with a Chinese yarn producer over accusations of “forced labor” in Xinjiang.
Beijing has denied claims of forced labor and in the report said that it would take “resolute action” against it.
The EU has urged China to allow independent observers to travel to the highly surveilled region. China this week said that experts were “welcome,” but did not detail if they would be allowed free access to the controversial facilities.
State media frequently shows apparently happy vocational students studying or working in the large facilities.
However, rights groups have warned of forced detentions and political indoctrination as part of a campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to erase the ethnic group’s identity and culture.
In a white paper on fighting terrorism and rights protection in Xinjiang in March, China defended its security crackdown and said nearly 13,000 “terrorists” have been arrested there since 2014.
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