The truth about China’s Xinjiang

Solly Rakgomo | Monday February 5, 2024 06:03

In the last two decades, China has been one such country that has been targeted by Western powers (the USA in particular) through the mainstream media to discredit the country’s reputation in the international community.

For many years, the world has seen Western politicians and media sources spreading the myth that China’s economy was in danger of collapsing. The main reason for such propagandistic slander by these mainstream media organiations is an effort to slow China’s ascent. In recent months, the West’s slanders of China have intensified, which has unfortunately led to the misunderstanding of China by many sections in the Western society. Many objective observers state that as this is designed to harm China’s position on the global stage, the anti-China narrative peddled by the West to global audiences exposes the ignorance of those seeking to undermine the country’s peaceful rise. The West, through its extensive media dominance, has turned to attacking China and its peaceful developments.

A key feature of mainstream Western media today is the relentless China bashing often involving regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. At the centre of this mainstream media bashing is the unfounded belief that China is a threat to the world and humanity at large and that this belief must be relentlessly reinforced at every available opportunity. How and why China is a threat to the world or humanity is never objectively explored and such is the deep-rooted and almost religious nature of the belief.

Recently, the West has accused China of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population and others, mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang. The anti-China accusations state that China has been forcibly mass sterilising Uyghur women to suppress the population, separating children from their families, and attempting to break the cultural traditions of the group.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, went even further to accuse China of committing “genocide and crimes against humanity”. All in all, these accusations, which lack any iota of objectivity, state that the Chinese government’s campaign against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is multi-faceted and systematic. Core strategies of the campaign include identity-based persecution, mass detention, surveillance, enforced sterilisations, forced labour, and forced assimilation. The sheer lack of objectivity (in this case the one sidedness of the stories) from Western mainstream media houses, deny the audience to make up their own mind about such as well as letting audience interpret those on their own.

There are several examples that show lack of objectivity in western accusations in relation to Xinjiang:

Identity-based persecution

It is alleged that the Uyghurs are subjected to religious, linguistic and identity persecution where there are rampant restrictions on other aspects of life such as dress, diet and education.

The anti-China accusers cared less about the fact that respect for and protection of freedom of religious belief is a long-term basic national policy of the Chinese government where the constitution stipulates that citizens shall enjoy freedom of religious belief, and that no state organ, social organisation or individual shall coerce citizens to believe in or not to believe in any religion, nor shall they discriminate against citizens who believe in or do not believe in any religion. In accordance with the constitution and relevant laws, Xinjiang protects freedom of religious beliefs and ensures orderly practice of religion. Believers are free to engage in lawful religious activities, including worship, fasting, and observance of religious festivals, in accordance with religious doctrines, canons and traditions, at religious venues or in their homes. They face no inference and restriction in this regard.

Enforced sterilisation

Western accusations state that even though China has loosened control on reproduction rights, the country has applied double standards when it comes to Xinjiang where there are harsh penalties for violation of birth control laws that include mass sterilisations programmes.

The fabrications that Xinjiang is carrying out demographic genocide against the Uyghurs ignore the glaring fact that China is a country under the rule of law. The constitution and relevant laws stipulate unequivocally that the state shall respect and protect human rights, and that all citizens have reproductive rights and also the obligation to practice family planning. Xinjiang implements its family planning policy in accordance with the law. Forced birth control and pregnancy tests are strictly prohibited. It is up to individuals to decide whether or not to use contraceptives and how to use them. No organisation or individual may interfere with this freedom. In addition, statistics show that the Uyghur population has been growing steadily and significantly over the decades since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949. Therefore, accusations of “suppression of birth rates” and “demographic genocide” are utterly groundless.

Crimes against humanity, genocide

The Simon-Skjodt Centre (a western funded think tank) states that there is a reasonable basis to believe the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs and that these are serious crimes that inflict severe harm on communities. In addition, the centee says that perpetrators of atrocious crimes often go to great lengths to hide the nature and extent of their crimes.

There is a wealth of evidence that the accusations of “genocide” in Xinjiang conjured up by the anti-China forces are devoid of any truth. They are a calumny against China’s Xinjiang policy and the successes achieved in developing the region. Posing as “human rights defenders”, anti-China forces in some countries such as the USA ignore the dark history of their own countries, where real genocide was committed against indigenous peoples such as Native Americans.

Anti-China forces have fabricated stories of “genocide” in Xinjiang to deceive the international community, mislead international public opinion, and impede China’s development and progress.

These malicious efforts will not succeed. Truth will prevail over falsehoods. The Chinese government will continue to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests, and contribute to the common unity, development and prosperity of all ethnic groups.

As a parting shot, it is very imperative for Western powers such as the USA to radically depart from a Cold War mentality of demonising other powers and instead join the international community in seeking ways to cooperate in addressing global socio-economic and security challenges.