Cotton growing is a profitable business that all residents in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region want to get involved in, especially since most of the labor is now done by machinery, a leading grower said.
"From my study, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has been growing steadily and the growth rate is comparatively high which proves that the genocide claim is a fabrication," Murata said.
The allegations of "genocide" in Xinjiang or "forced labor" in the region's cotton fields are "nothing but attempts to smear and demonize China, undermine security and stability in Xinjiang, weaken the local economy and contain China's development", said a Chinese envoy.
Moreover, the claim that half a million Uygurs and other Muslim minorities had been forced to work in the cotton fields was totally absurd.
Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a region rich in solar and wind resources, has made a great deal of headway in helping the country reach its dual targets of carbon neutrality and emission peak.
