by His Excellency Liu Yantao, Ambassador of China to Cyprus
There has been a long list of negative reports in the western media about China’s Xinjiang recently, which consisted of lies and rumours. The Chinese government repeatedly issued strong rebuttals by presenting facts and new evidence, telling Xinjiang’s true story in an open and transparent manner.
This was recently done at the 21st press conference held by the local government of Xinjiang Autonomous Region at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. The event was well attended by representatives of 24 well-known foreign media, including the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, BBC, etc., and offered an objective perspective on what has been happening on the ground in Xinjiang through the narratives of Xinjiang residents.
“Forced Labor” or voluntary work?
A few media mentioned that some international brands including Adidas, Gap and Nike were accused of using forced Uighur labour in their textile supply chains, with the so-called “proof” being that in 2018 three Uighur-majority areas in Xinjiang sent at least 570,000 people to harvest cotton as part of a state-run coercive labor transfer scheme.
In fact, the so called “mass forced labor” in Xinjiang are nothing but lies and fallacies fabricated by some anti-China organizations and individuals. In real practice, laborers of all ethnicities in Xinjiang choose to work of their free will, and sign labour contracts with and receive payment from companies in accordance with the Labor Law of China.
For many years, during the harvest season, due to the shortage of cotton collecting machinery and the better quality and higher grades of hand-picked cotton (compared to machinery-collected cotton), many workers-mostly of Han ethnicity, were temporarily hired as cotton pickers from neighboring Provinces of Henan, Sichuan, Gansu and commuted together to Xinjiang by train. Local workers in Xinjiang also voluntarily went to cotton producing areas. Picking cotton is the farmers’ free choice and this month-long work can bring them an attractive income of about US$1,500.
In October 2020, 20 Ambassadors of Arab countries to China visited Xinjiang and made a field study in Aksu Huafu Color Spinning Company. As they said, “the company operates very well, the employees live and work happily here, and they enjoy their full rights”, and that “the employees enjoy comfortable and stable lives, and are adequately provided with work uniforms, accommodation, commuting service and skills training.”
In order to bolster public employment services, the local authorities in Xinjiang have built a public employment service system for both employers and employees, which is well-coordinated at all levels and covers every part of Xinjiang. It has further expanded services to areas such as policy advice, employment and unemployment registration, career guidance and recommendation, skills and business startup training. In 2019 alone, 144 human resource markets at the county level or above and 8,668 primary-level labor offices across Xinjiang had provided employment services to over 21.73 million people.
“Concentration Camps” or deradicalization schools?
Some media reported that over one million Uighurs were held in the so-called “concentration camps” or “re-education camps”, which has been proven to be fake news that distort facts.
As a matter of fact, the vocational education and training centres legally established in Xinjiang were schools dedicated to deradicalization, which is a common agenda of countries around the world. These training schools were no different in nature from the “Community Corrections Program” in the US, the “Desistance and Disengagement Program” in the UK, and the deradicalization centers in France. These are all measures for counter-terrorism and deradicalization, and comply with the principles and spirits of United Nations Global Counter-terrorism Strategy and other anti-terrorism resolutions.
As for the rumours spread by some Western media outlets that “a million of Uighurs were detained in the Centers”, they are nothing but slander. The Grayzone, an independent news website disclosed information that such ridiculous conclusions were fabricated and spread by the US government supported non-governmental organizations and anti-China forces. On July 25, 2020, Max Blumenthal, an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, spoke at an international symposium, “No to New Cold War,” saying that many media reports alleging a million Uighurs were being detained were based on dubious sources of information and did not stand up to close examination.
By December 2019, all trainees who attended the courses in Mandarin, law, vocational skills and deradicalization in the training center had graduated and embraced a new life. Some trainees have entered technical secondary schools or higher vocational colleges for further study. Some found jobs in local enterprises. Some started their own businesses and set examples for getting rid of poverty. For example, Ablikim Dawut in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, has found a job in an electrical company by virtue of his vocational skills acquired in the training center and now earns a monthly salary of nearly US$ 800, which reaches the middle- income level in Xinjiang. Abaydulla Omur, a graduate trainee in Turpan City, has opened an e-commerce company to sell local specialties through livestreaming with the local government’s help. He is selling raisins and red jujubes from the foot of the Flaming Mountains to all parts of China, which has greatly increased his income for a better life.
Political bias or impartial reports?
We are happy to see that the Associated Press and other foreign media reported the development and achievement of Xinjiang after the 21st press conference. As AP truthfully quoted the spokesperson for the Xinjiang government, “In Xinjiang, 117,000 people have gone to work in other parts of China since 2014 through programs that have enabled them to develop skills and leave farms for higher-paying factory work.” “The birthrate in Xinjiang keeps higher than 10 per 1,000 people, holding steady at around 15.5 for the previous eight years.” “The government’s focus is shifting more to addressing the roots of extremism.” “The region hasn’t had a terrorist attack for four years.” AP has also quoted Elijan Anayat, an ethnic Uighur, who said that “reports of forced sterilization to limit Uighur population growth was sheer fabrication by anti-Chinese forces.”
Based on official data, from 1978 to 2019, the Uighur population in Xinjiang grew from 5.55 million to nearly 13 million. The growth rate of Uighur population for the last 8 years reached 25%, which is higher than that of the whole population in Xinjiang, which is 14%, and much higher than that of the Han population, which is 2%.
As Chinese Ambassador to Cyprus and an official who worked in Xinjiang for 3 years, I am ready to share more with the Cypriot readers in the future and promote their better understanding of a real Xinjiang and a real China.
