US State Department webpage on Xinjiang 'full of lies and rumours': China

China has denounced the US State Department’s new webpage on alleged human right abuses of Uyghurs by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as “full of lies and rumours”. The State Department released a new webpage on September 13 to illustrate the targeted campaign against Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. 

Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims in the Xinjiang province, also known as East Turkestan, who have been facing persecution in the name of “re-education” camps. The department has cited reports of coercive population control, detention of more than one million people of ethnic minorities in internment camps, forced labour, and destruction of religious sites.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin rubbished the claims at a regular news conference on September 14, saying those are nothing but “rumours and slanders.” Wang said that the rights of ethnic minority workers from Xinjiang are protected by China's Labor Law and Labor Contract Law. He added that the Uyghur population in Xinjiang grew from 5.55 million to over 12 million in the past four decades.

“The US Department of State’s webpage on Xinjiang is full of lies and rumours,” he told the press briefing, without providing the rate of population growth in the past four years.

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Hails 'de-radicalisation' measures

The spokesperson said that the counter-terrorism and “de-radicalisation measures” taken by the Xinjiang local governments in recent years have produced “remarkable results”. However, he failed to provide details on the so-called de-radicalisation measures which has been at the centre of controversy. Wang blamed the US for turning a deaf ear to “facts and truth”, adding that the State Department is trying its best to vilify the image of Xinjiang. 

“It reveals that the true agenda of the US is not caring for the human rights situation in Xinjiang, but undermining the region’s prosperity and stability and containing China’s development under the pretext of human rights,” said Wang.

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