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The 5th Press Conference on Xinjiang-Concerned Issues

Photo taken on March 2,2020 shows the 5th Press Conference on Xinjiang-Concerned Issues in Urumqi,Xinjiang.

On March 2, 2020, the Information Office of the People's Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region held the 5th press conference on Xinjiang related issues. The press conference invited Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR Elijan Anayit, Director of the Ethnic Affairs Commission (Religious Affairs Bureau) of XUAR Mehmut Usman, Mayor of Hotan City Rishat Musajan, a retired cadre of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Hami City Zoram Talip, to give a briefing and answer questions from the press.

Host of press conference: Deputy Head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Xinjiang Committee Xu Guixiang

Xu Guixiang: Dear friends from the press, good afternoon. Welcome to the 5th press conference on Xinjiang related issues.

The invitees of today's press conference are Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR Elijan Anayit, Director of the Ethnic Affairs Commission (Religious Affairs Bureau) of XUAR Mehmut Usman, Mayor of Hotan City Rishat Musajan, a retired cadre of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Hami City Zoram Talip.They will answer questions from you.

Our friends from the press, please raise your hands to ask questions. Before asking questions, please introduce the name of the news press you are in.

Reporter from China Daily

Q:Recently, the CECC of the U.S. published its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China which includes some Xinjiang-related contents.What is your comment on it?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Elijan Anayit.

Elijan Anayit,Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR:

A: Disregarding facts and distorting truth, the Commission's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China smeared and groundlessly criticized the human rights situation in China with malicious intentions. Xinjiang government and people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are resolutely opposed to its accusations!

The Chinese government attaches great importance to human rights protection and promotion. The central government always cares about people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and takes practical and forcible measures to protect political rights, economic rights, social rights, cultural rights and freedom of religious belief of people of all ethnic groups in accordance with law. Especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, living standards of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have improved year after year. In 2019, the per capita urban and rural disposable income were 34,664 yuan and 13,122yuan. From 2014 to end of 2019, Xinjiang lifted a total of 2.9232 million people in 737,000 households out of poverty. The poverty headcount ratio dropped from 19.4% in 2014 to 1.24%. All rural residents below the current poverty will get rid of poverty and enter a moderately prosperous society in all respects together with the rest of the nation by 2020. Social undertakings have made all-round progress. Nine-year compulsory education covers the whole region, while south Xinjiang enjoys 15-year free education. Since 2016, we initiated the Universal Free Physical Examination Project, under which people of all ethnic groups are entitled to a free physical exam at health or medical institutions. The routine physical exam helps detect illnesses for early treatment so as to best ensure people in good health.We are fully implementing the insurance-for-all plan. Serious illness insurance for people of all ethnic groups and personal accident insurance for urban and rural residents reach full coverages; the social security participation rate hovers above 95%. Great efforts have been mobilized to cement and beef up the rural safe water project, which secured 346,200 people have access to clean water in last year, and running water is available to 85% rural population last year. We have been vigorously pressing ahead with dilapidated housing renovation project. All families under the poverty lines have move into the homes built for them, putting an end to a history that poor people live in dilapidated homes in Xinjiang. We are making sustained effort to create jobs through diversified channels and to make it easier for people to do business. A total of 100,000 labourers from the four prefectures (Kashgar, Hotan, Aksu and Kizilsu Kirgiz ) in south Xinjiang have been employed through labour transfer project since 2018. Every family is constantly ensured to have at least one member in work. As of 2014, Xinjiang has created 2.8272 million urban jobs, with an average of 471,2000 jobs added each year. Freedom of religious belief is protected in accordance with law. It is a completely independent choice of citizens to believe in, or not believe in, any religion. There are 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, one for about every 500 Muslims, which have effectively met the believers' demand. Government spends to put in facilities and improve conditions in mosques across the region, which have been equipped with running water, electricity, natural gas, radio and television and libraries. Roads leading to mosques have been paved to make access easier. Ablution facilities and flushing toilets have been installed in Juma mosques. Other facilities newly installed or added to mosques include medical services, LED screens, computers, electric fans or air conditioners, fire-fighting equipment, drinking water dispensers, show coverings or automatic dispensers of shoe coverings, and lockers. Funds are earmarked by the region for mosque maintenance. All these have greatly improved the conditions of venues for religious activities, thus are welcomed and appreciated by believers. Channels for believers to gain religious knowledge have been expanded. Religious classics and books have been translated and published , including the Koran and Selections from Al-Sahih Muhammad Ibn-Ismail al-Bukhari, in the Han Chinese, Uygur, Kazakh and Kirgiz languages. The excellent traditional ethnic cultures in Xinjiang is protected and preserved. The Uygur Muqam, the Kirgiz epic Manas and Uygur Meshrep were registered on the "UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." Ethnic minority languages are extensively used in judicature, administration, education, press and publishing, radio and television, Internet and public affairs. Xinjiang is experiencing its most auspicious period of development and prosperity with progress on all fronts. The best explanation to human rights is Xinjiang’s stability and harmony, and people's happy and peaceful life.

In stark contrast, the U.S. notorious full for its stained human rights records. First, wealth disparity has been widening increasingly. Poverty rate remains high, and almost half of American families live in financial difficulties. On July 17, 2018, U.S. the USA Today carried an article of Senator Burnie Sanders, saying 43% of U.S. households cann't make ends meet and have to borrow to pay for housing, food, child nursing, health care, transportation and communications. Second, systematic racial discrimination has been existing for a long time. Senior government officials including the president have made populist remarks endorsing xenophobia. People of color have been widely discriminated, and racial discrimination in justice and law enforcement has not improved. Investigation of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) indicated that 51% Americans believe African-Americans and other minorities are treated unfairly in the criminal justice system compared with white people.Third, religious intolerance remarks are on the rise. The mid-term elections in 2018 saw a surge of anti-Muslim opinions. A report found that conspiracy theories targeting Muslims are increasingly making inroads into the political mainstream. "More than a third have claimed that Muslims are inherently violent or pose an imminent threat," and "just under a third of the candidates considered have called for Muslims to be denied basic rights or declared that Islam is not a religion." Fourth, the notorious Guantanamo military prison. Most of the prisoners were not trialed. Los Angeles Times reported on its website on July 26, 2018 that a Pakistani, mistaken for an extremist, was imprisoned and tortured in Guantanamo for as long as 14 years without trial, resulting in serious physical and mental damage. Fifth, America turns a deaf ear to its own human rights issues. The U.S. flagrantly withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council. On June 20, 2018, The Atlantic on its website reported that the most likely intention for the move is to prevent the U.S. from being called out on its own alleged human-rights abuses. In 2019, The Guardian reported that up to 22 formally documented inquires by UN special rapporteurs on human rights in all sectors in response to U.S. human rights records went unanswered from the country.

It is fair to say that from the past till now, the US has done quite poorly on human right issues. As a country that has withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council, it has no right and qualification to comment on other countries. It is hoped that the US could reflect on its domestic human rights issues, abandon double standards, and stop fabricating lies to throw mud at China and using so-called “human right issues" to interfere in China’s internal affairs. The fact of development and progress in Xinjiang’s human rights undertaking is obvious to all around the world, and cannot be written off by any rumor.

Reporter from Global Times

Q: The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China released by CECC of the U.S. alleges that the “political re-education" in the “mass internment camps" in Xinjiang aims at “political indoctrination and intimidation", rather than providing vocational skill education and employment training as explained by the Chinese authorities. What’s your comment?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Rishat Musajan.

Rishat Musajan,Mayor of Hotan City:

A: First of all, I want to emphasize that there were no so-called “mass internment camps" in Xinjiang. Some American politicians and media with ulterior motives always rename Xinjiang’s vocational education and training centers with sensational appellations, such as “mass internment camps", “re-education camps", “concentration camps", etc. These inventions are nothing but just calling black white and confusing the public. In fact, the vocational education and training centers legally established in Xinjiang were no different in essence from the “community corrections” enforced in the US, the DDP in the UK, and the deradicalization centers in France, all being conducive attempt and proactive exploration for preventive counterterrorism and deradicalization.

In order to address the problems of the trainees’ limited command of the standard spoken and written Chinese language, lack of legal awareness and occupational skills, and that they were influenced by religious extremism to different degrees, the vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang delivered a curriculum that included standard spoken and written Chinese, understanding of the law, vocational skills and deradicalization, aiming to root out terrorism and religious extremism from the source, but not the U.S. alleged "political indoctrination and intimidation" at all. Through the systemic education, the trainees have remarkably improved their comprehensive quality, awareness of rule of law, and ability to use the standard spoken and written Chinese. They have mastered practical skills with their employability being increased, and got ride of the psychological control of terrorism and religious extremism. At the press conference on Xinjiang's stability and development on December 9, 2019, governor Shohrat Zakir announced that all the trainees receiving the education and training on the standard Chinese, laws, vocational skills and deradicalization at the centers had graduated and realized stable employment under assistance of the government. They have improved their living standards and are living a normal life.

The deradicalization practice of Xinjiang’s vocational education and training centers have got recognition from more and more countries and people of insight across the world. In January, 2019, a Turkish journalist who visited the vocational education and training centers for interviews said, "the western media’s coverage on this place is very partial. One reportage is that ‘concentration camps’ are built here, and some are being prosecuted. I came here with that preconception, but it has fallen away after I visited the place. What I see is an education center, where the students receive training while improving themselves, so that they become people of virtue. The atmosphere there is very good, which helps the people reintegrate into the society."

Lies are lies, even if they are repeated a thousand times. Wearing tinted spectacles and out of personal political agenda, some Americans slandered Xinjiang’s righteous action of countering terrorism and extremism. After all, their deeds are connivance to terrorism and extremism. In so doing, they will only lose more credibility and make the good and just people in the world laugh.

Reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Q: According to The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China released by CECC of the U.S., the detainees at Xinjiang’s “mass internment camps" include foreign permanent residents, including Americans and Australians. Is it true?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Elijan Anayit.

Elijan Anayit,Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR :

A: China is a country under the rule of law, with complete judicial process. Xinjiang’s judicial authorities deal with all those who committed unlawful and criminal acts in strict accordance with the law based on the nature and circumstances of their acts. Xinjiang government legally protects foreigners’s legitimate rights. As long as a foreigner has not violated Chinese law, he or she will not be taken compulsory measures. I can tell you responsibly that no non-Chinese has ever received vocational education and training in Xinjiang.

Reporter from China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Q: The CECC’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China alleged that:“Xinjiang arbitrarily detained ethnic minorities including the Uygur and tortured the detainees. Nurmuhemmet Tohti, a famous Uygur writer, died in a detention camp; A Uygur named Mutellip Nurmehmet died 9 days after releasing from the Education and Training Center.” Is it true?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Rishat Musajan.

Rishat Musajan,Mayor of Hotan City :

A: Xinjiang fights terrorism and extremism in accordance with law, which doesn't target any ethnicity, and protect people under the threat of terrorism and extremism instead. This is the important principle we uphold all the time. In practice, we insist that everyone, regardless of his or her identity or ethnicity, is equal before the law as long as he or she breaks the law. Anyone who engages in terrorism and extremism related activities or endangers public safety and property, will surely be brought to justice. In line with the principle of the criminal law that advocates a combination of punishment and leniency, we resort to education and rehabilitation to bring about and educate people who are infected by religious extremism and committed minor offences in education and training Centers established according to the law. So-called “arbitrary detentions of ethnic minorities including the Uygur” have never existed at all.

In real practice, the education and training centers strictly followed the Constitution and laws to prevent any violation of the basic rights of the trainees. Trainees' personal freedom at the education and training centers were protected. The centers were managed in residential education model which allowed trainees to go back home and ask for leave to attend personal affairs. The trainees’ right to use their spoken and written languages were fully protected at the centers. The regulations, curriculum, and menus at the centers all used local ethnic languages as well as standard Chinese. The customs of all ethnic groups were fully respected and protected, and a variety of nutritious Muslim food was provided free of charge. The education and training centers respect the trainees’ freedom of religious belief. The trainees decided on their own whether to take part in religious activities when they went back home. The centers were fitted with clinics on campus providing the trainees with 24-hour medical care free of charge. Minor ailments were treated in the clinics, while acute and serious illnesses will be timely referred to and treated at hospitals.

The allegations in the CECC's report that writer Nurmuhemmet Tohti died in a detention camp; and Mutellip Nurmehmet died 9 days after being releasing from a education and training center are totally fabricated rumors out of thin air. Nurmuhemmet Tohti is a Uygur from Hotan who has never studied in any education and training center. He had been suffering from heart disease for 20 years, in which he either was hospitalized for treatment or stayed at home for recuperation for quite long time. On the evening of May 31, 2019, he was struck by a massive heart attack and rush to a hospital where he died after emergency rescue failed.

Mutellip Nurmehmet, male, Uygur, a native of Urumqi, Xinjiang, had never studied in any education and training center before he died. According to the information reporters obtained through a visit to his home, he died of excessive drinking derived acute alcohol intoxication, alcoholic encephalopathy, respiratory failure and acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

The death of one’s relatives is a heart broken experience. However, some Americans made rumors about it, which made them extremely angry. I think anyone with a conscience would never do such a immoral thing.

Reporter from Xinjiang Daily

Q: The CECC’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China alleged that:“Xinjiang suppresses Islamism and contains religious belief. It specifically mentioned that Abdughappar Abdurusul, a Uygur businessman, was sentenced to death for unapproved pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.” What's your comment?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Mehmut Usman.

Mehmut Usman,Director of the Ethnic Affairs Commission (Religious Affairs Bureau) of XUAR:

A: Respecting and protecting the freedom of religious belief is a basic national policy of Chinese government. Xinjiang has thoroughly implemented the policy of freedom of religious belief. Religious and non religious believers enjoy equal political, economic, social and cultural rights. No citizens are discriminated against and unfairly treated for them being religious believers or nonbelievers. Pilgrimage to Mecca is especially supported by the government. Each year, government arranges chartered airplanes for Muslims to make pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Besides, medical treatment and translation are funded by the government so as to guarantee a safe and orderly pilgrimage . So far, more than 50,000 people from Xinjiang have made pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

Abdughappar Abdurusul, a native of Yining city, Ili Prefecture engages in second-hand apartment businesses and leads a normal life. The U.S. alleged that he was sentenced to death citing pilgrimage as the reason. We don’t know where the U.S. got the fabricated rumors? To stop such rumors from cheating more people, a journalist interviewed him in Yining.

Reporter from China News Service

Q: It was mentioned in the CECC’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China that the Washington Post interviewed the wife of Zharqynbek Otan, a Chinese Kazakh by ethnicity who had been held in a "Vocation Education and Training Center" for nearly two years before he returned back to Kazakhstan. After release, he suffers memory impairment, among other health problems”. Can you give some more information on this ?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Elijan Anayit.

Elijan Anayit,Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR :

A: Zharqynbek Otan is a 33-year-old Kazakh from Zhaosu County of Ili Kazakh Prefecture, Xinjiang. On January 16, 2017, he entered China via Horgas Port from Kazakhstan. Border check found his passport pages from 15 to 20 were missing and his Kazakhstan Visa on Page 22 was deliberately altered by him manually. According to Item 1, Article 71 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Entry and Exit Administration. he was handed an administrative punishment and his passport nullified by local police agency.

Since then, Zharqynbek Otan has been living in his father’s house at No.186 Honghanai Street, Zhaosu Country. His personal freedom has never been restricted and he never studied at any Vocational Education and Training Center. On October 26, 2018, upon his personal application for visiting his family members in Kazakhstan, local authority issued him a new passport through due procedures and he departed China on November 11, 2018. His family members in China affirmed that he was in good health condition with no memory problems before he left, let alone such a thing that he barely recognizes his family members.

With this opportunity, I would like to remind journalists from some American media, the handful of so-called witnesses you had interviewed, especially "East Turkistan" members wandering overseas, not only fabricate rumors themselves but also exploit the international media coverage by every means to mislead pubic opinion. I hope that your future reports must be based on fact and truth. Don’t fall into traps of these vicious people and become a spreader of rumors, which damages your public credibility.

Reporter from People’s Daily

Q: The CECC’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China also mentioned about the case of Sayragul Sauytbay, claiming that “ before fleeing China, she was forced to work at a ‘detention camp’. Why she escaped from China?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Elijan Anayit.

Elijan Anayit,Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR:

A: This Sayragul Sauytbay, a Kazakh by ethnicity from Zhaosu County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang, used to work at the Central Kindergarten of Chahanwusu Town of Zhaosu Country. But she was neither employed nor studied at any Vocational Education and Training Center, and nor she was subject to any compulsory measures. In fact, she is a crime suspect for loan fraud and illegal border crossing. In June 2015, she acquired a ten-year loan of 200,000 yuan from the rural credit co-op of Chahanwusu Township, a branch of Zhaosu County Rural Co-op Credit union, with forged signatures of her guarantors and fake letters of guarantee. Until today, she still has 149,000 yuan to pay off . In December 2016, she once again obtained a ten-year loan of 270,000 yuan the same rural credit co-op with a forged home purchase contact. Currently, the amount yet to be paid stands at 249,000 yuan.

She lied that she was persecuted only to escape legal punishment for the crimes she had committed, and to seek pretexts and support for her application of a so-called refuge status. To inform the public why she sneaked out of China and what kind of person she really is, reporters interviewed her relatives and former colleagues.

Such a person of notorious history deceived many people with her lies, and she even used nonexistent so-called "sufferings" to avoid legal punishment. People who have been fooled by her are believed to see through her, and she will pay the price for her crimes and lies.

Reporter from Xinjiang Radio and Television Station

Q: The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China issued by the CECC of the U.S. urged OIC member states to exert pressure on China and, at its conferences and on other international forums, to criticize China for its “massive internment of Muslins and violation of human rights.” What are you going to respond?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Mehmut Usman.

Mehmut Usman,Director of the Ethnic Affairs Commission (Religious Affairs Bureau) of XUAR :

A: What I need to stress first is that the so-called “illegal detention of Muslins” is nothing but a nonsense. Xinjiang insists that its counter-terrorism and deradicalization targets no locality, ethnicity, and religion. Instead it safeguards people of all ethnic groups enjoy extensive rights and freedom including freedom of religious belief, and ensures the normalcy of social life. Xinjiang’s practices enjoys unanimous support from people of all ethnicities.

Since the end of 2018, over 1,000 people from 90 countries have visited Xinjiang in more than 70 groups. They include foreign diplomatic envoys to China, UN officials, Geneva-based senior diplomats of various countries, journalists and some from religious organizations. They, with those from Muslin countries, have all recognized Xinjiang’s vocational education and training work have made an important contribution to international efforts to fight terrorism and extremism, and generated valuable experience that is of great reference value. In March 2019, the Council of Foreign ministers of OIC adopted a resolution commending China's efforts in providing care to its Muslim citizens. On multiple international occasions like UN Human Right Council and the Third Committee (SOCHUM) of UN General Assembly, many Muslim countries have spoken in defense of justice, supporting Xinjiang's counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures.

In contrast, massive facts demonstrate Muslims in the U.S. are suffering increasing discrimination. American policies towards Islamic world is even jaw-dropping, and its “Muslim ban” policy has been broadly criticized by the international community. Moreover, the U.S. incites wars in the Middle East in the name of human rights, leaving massive casualties of innocent people and countless displacements, which are too numerous to record.

It is evident to all who does better and who does worse on protecting Muslims basic rights and safeguarding peace and stability of the Islamic world. The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019-China calling on OIC state members to apply pressure on Chinese government only reveals the sinister motives of the U.S. to sow discord between China and Muslim countries. We believe any deluding and smear will never work and any alienation and provocation will bound to fail.

Reporter from Tianshannet

Q: Not long ago, the New York Times carried a report Her Uighur Parents Were Model Chinese Citizens. It Didn’t Matter., hyping the parents (mother Zoram Talip and father Isaac Payzulla) of Sweden-based Zulhumar Talip, a native of Xinjiang, being putt in so-called "camps." Would you please shed on the light on the true story?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Zoram Talip.

Zoram Talip,a retired cadre of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Hami City:

A: I am Zoram Talip. I was a director-level consultant of Hami Municipal Language Office before I retired. My husband Isaac Payzulla is an cadre of Hami Daily. We both are children of ordinary farmers and herdsman. And thanks to the Party's love and care, we became CPC members and were promoted to official positions.

My husband and I have been leading a normal life in Hami. Last year, Zulhumar's parents-in-laws came to Hami for tourism from Hebei Province. We received them warmly, enjoying local delicacies, touring attractions, dancing Uygur Meshrep. We really had a good time together. I know that my daughters have been used to be interviewed by the New York Times and some other foreign media outlets, in which she portrayed something about us inaccurate. These media then took advantage of the inaccuracies in her interview attacking and smearing our Party and government. With this opportunity, I would like to say something to my daughters:

My dear girls, your are the dearest people to mom and dad. You are so blessed that you have lived through good times of China's development since you were born. You were sent to university to become talents to serve the country. A Uygur saying goes: a traveler on a well signposted road never go astray, a wiser mind never eats his words. Don't be blinded by rumors and used by people of sinister motives. You may visit us at any time.

Reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Q: A few days ago, Radio Free Asia reported 770 students from Xinjiang have been detained in Wuhan Railway High School, Wuhan East Lake High School and Wuhan No.1 High School since a lockdown came to effect on the city of Wuhan. Whether there have been infections among the students so far remained unclear, as they are isolated, and restricted to practise their beliefs and use their languages. The Turkish website www. Maarip.org affiliated with East Turkistan Education & Solidarity Association carried a passage alleging Chinese government shipped 50 Uygur students from Turpan area to the virus-hit City of Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, when the virus is spreading further. Could you please verify the above allegations?

Xu Guixiang: This question goes to Elijan Anayit .

Elijan Anayit,Spokesperson of the Information Office of the People's Government of XUAR :

A: Such smears are nothing but clumsy acts of overseas hostile forces which take advantage of COVID-19 to catch people's eye and make themselves being felt. First, I would like to brief you about the real picture of Xinjiang classes in Wuhan.

There are three provincial demonstration high schools -Wuhan Railway High School, Wuhan East Lake High School and Wuhan No.1 High School - in Wuhan that have Xinjiang classes enrolling a total of 999 students from Xinjiang, with 336 at Wuhan Railway High School, 330 Wuhan No.1 High School and 333 at Wuhan East Lake High School. As the winter vacation was short and overlapped the Chinese New Year travel rush, as well as long distances to travel back, overwhelming majority of the students preferred to stay to study at school in the winter vacation. Taking into consideration the real situation and fully respecting students' will, the three schools provide what's needed to ensure students' life and study. Now, there are 955 students remaining in Wuhan, with 334 at Wuhan Railway High School, 297 Wuhan No.1 High School and 324 at Wuhan East Lake High School.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, educational departments of Hubei Province, Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Wuhan City have attached great importance to preventing the Xinjiang students in these classes from being infected. Various epidemic prevention and control measures have been strengthened to guarantee well-organized leadership of the work, provision of supplies, and effective protection. First, a strong organizational guarantee. The three schools have all established their own epidemic prevention and control command and emergency response teams headed by the principals to make thorough deployment of the work. Second, supplies guarantee. Through government allocations as well as social organizations’ and personal donations, medical protective products and daily necessities supplied to the three schools can meet their daily needs. Third, protective measures guarantee. All the three schools have made strict epidemic prevention and control measures, providing enough hand sanitizers, distributing masks in time, disinfecting classrooms, canteens, flats and dormitories on daily basis and keeping a log of the students’ body temperatures. Meanwhile, at the same pace of all the other schools in Wuhan, the three schools have organized students remaining on the campus to attend online classes, so as to ensure that the students make full use of the vacation to improve their academic performance under the premise of ensuring safety and health. In consideration of the parents’ concerns and worries about their children especially after the outbreak, the three schools have asked all remaining students to contact their parents every day, so as to let the parents rest assured.

Thanks to the help and care of the Party committees and the government at different levels as well as the people from all walks of life, none of the Xinjiang-native students in these classes of senior high schools in Wuhan has been confirmed or suspected to be infected with the novel coronavirus. The students live and study happily on the campus with ample food, warm clothes and comfortable lodging. There is no such thing as “being detained”, or “being forbidden to contact with the outside".

The above mentioned article claims that despite the epidemic spread, the Chinese government transferred about 50 Uygur students from Turpan Prefecture to Beihai City of Guangxi where there were confirmed cases. In fact, it is groundless nonsense fabricated by overseas opposing forces harboring hostile intentions. The outright lie is extremely ridiculous.

Xu Guixiang: Today's press conference concludes now. Thanks all the invitees and reporters.