TIANSHANNET   ›   News   ›   Xinjiang News

Xinjiang issue concocted by the West: China Daily editorial

Inheritors of Daolang Muqam intangible cultural heritage hold musical performance in Makit county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on Sept 15, 2019. SHANG CHANGPING/FOR CHINA DAILY

A United Nations virtual meeting on human rights in Xinjiang? It is more to the point for it to be called an ideological farce or a hullabaloo organized by the United States and its allies on how China can be smeared and thereafter contained.

It is not surprising that the UN should hold events on human rights problems in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, where the wars launched or instigated by the US and its Western allies have resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and millions of refugees.

Residents of different ethnic groups in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region would also have faced violence and suffering had it not been for the painstaking efforts by the Chinese government to crack down on the forces of terrorism, extremism and separatism. As a consequence of the government's initiatives Xinjiang has not suffered a single terrorist attack in nearly five years.

By contrasts, human rights disasters continue in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and some other places. So why has there been no UN event on human rights abuses in those localities? It is because the US and its allies take it for granted that they can point an accusing finger at other countries on human rights issues or even in the name of human rights, but not vice versa.

Sanctimonious defines their understanding of human rights and describes how they behave as far as the defending of human rights is concerned.

What is the ulterior motive behind their accusing China of "human right abuses" in Xinjiang when the real issue there is to consolidate what China has achieved in its fight against forces of extremism, terrorism and separatism by further developing the local economy and improving the lives and livelihoods of residents of different ethnic groups?

It is nothing but a handle they believe they can take advantage of to bad-mouth China so that the country's image can be smeared and thus its global influence compromised.

However, the logic in their narrative, which they try to sustain with lies and fabrications, does not withstand any scrutiny. The "witnesses" they rely on to support their allegations are mostly Uygur separatists. Since these purported eyewitnesses want to split Xinjiang from China, it is natural that they should speak ill of China and turn a blind eye to what the country has achieved for the well-being of the residents in Xinjiang.

No government is more concerned than the Chinese government about social and political stability in Xinjiang and the overall well-being of its residents. The concern the US and its allies have shown for human rights conditions in Xinjiang is anything but genuine.