{"id":91573,"date":"2019-07-20T00:39:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T06:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91573"},"modified":"2019-07-20T15:39:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T22:39:50","slug":"what-is-really-happening-in-xinjiang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/20\/what-is-really-happening-in-xinjiang\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Really Happening In Xinjiang"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Recently, I was\nsurprised to notice that some politicians and media in the western countries continuously\nattacked China\u2019s policy in Xinjiang, falsely claiming that a large number of concentration\ncamps\u201d violating human rights have been established there. But what is the true\nstory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Grand Bazar (market) in Urumqi, Xinjiang,\n2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Xinjiang\nhave settled as many as 47 ethnic groups, including the Uygur, Han, Kazak, Hui,\nMongolian, Tajik etc. Among the 24.4 million population of Xinjiang, nearly 13\nmillion are Muslims. The Chinese government has attached great importance to\nmaintaining the ethnic and religious harmony, as well as the economic and\ncultural development in Xinjiang. There are 24,400 mosques in Xinjiang by far,\nwhich means one mosque shared by every 530 Muslims, an even higher proportion\nthan some Islamic countries. In Xinjiang, television programs are broadcast in\nmultiple languages, and diverse ethnic groups are allowed to use their own\nlanguages in lawsuits and election. Chinese, Uygur and Kazak languages are\nequally available in The National College Entrance Examination. All the facts\nclearly prove the so-called oppression of Muslims\u201d a total fake news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

a training center in Xinjiang, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, such\nstability and prosperity in Xinjiang is not what some external forces wish to\nsee. Since the 1990s, under the combined infection of separatists, extremists\nand terrorists, both domestically and internationally, Xinjiang has seen thousands\nof violent and terrorist crimes, leading to huge casualties of innocent\ncitizens and death of hundreds of policemen. Those terrorists such as East\nTurkistan Islamic Movement have already been identified by UN and many\ncountries as international terrorist organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a precaution measure to\nfight terrorism, the Chinese government has established vocational training centers\nin Xijiang, in accordance with the Constitution and the\nCounter-terrorism Law. These centers are in fact boarding schools, where\nlessons on national language, laws, vocational training and deradicalization\nare offered for free, so that trainees can master a skill and achieve\nself-reliance after the training. It is a common sense that any citizen, no\nmatter in which country, should be able to use the national language; laws of\nall countries shall not be ignored or even overridden. Lack of access to\nnecessary vocational skills will cause unemployment and poverty, which would\nbecome soil nurturing extremist ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Xinjiang, trainees sign\nagreements with the training centers, share free food and accommodation, and\nenjoy all fundamental rights. Trainees can have home visits on regular basis\nand can ask for leave for personal affairs. Families are also free to visit and\nto video chat with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is most significant\nand important is that since the establishment of training centers, no violent\nor terrorist activity occurred in Xinjiang for more than 25 months, and the\noverall security has been largely improved there. In the year of 2018, tourists\nto Xinjiang, from inside and outside China, numbered over 150 million, with a\n40 percent growth comparing to the year of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Riot in Xinjiang, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Riot in Xinjiang, 2009<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The international community\nwill no longer easily believe the rumors of western media. On 12th<\/sup>\nJuly, 37 countries of diverse regions, nationalities, religions and social\nsystems co-signed a letter to United Nations Human Rights Council, supporting\nChina\u2019s policy in Xinjiang and objecting politicizing human rights issue. They\nspeak highly of China\u2019s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts in\nXinjiang, including the establishment of training centers, which they believe\nwill benefit the security and stability of China, the region and the world. It\nis worth mentioning that many among these 37 countries are actually Islamic\ncountries. Because many countries also suffer from terrorism, extremism and\nseparatism, they fully understand that the real problem in Xinjiang is the\nthreat of terrorism, and strongly support China\u2019s anti-terrorism practice in\nXinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About two weeks ago, on 7th<\/sup> July, I had an opportunity to visit Negombo, mourn in the St. Sebastian Church, and visit the children injured in the 21\/4 terrorist attacks. I can strongly feel the pain of the Sri Lankan people from all ethnic communities. The attacks reminded us once again that terrorism and extremism are common threats for both China and Sri Lanka. We believe that people from all circles of Sri Lanka society can tell what is right from wrong, and can fully understand China\u2019s efforts in fighting terrorism, extremism and separatism. Let us work together, enhance our cooperation on security and law enforcement, encourage more exchanges between different ethnic and religious groups of our two countries, and uphold peace and safety of our two peoples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ambassador\nCheng Xueyuan Visiting St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan Recently, I was surprised to notice that some politicians and media in the western countries continuously attacked China\u2019s policy in Xinjiang, falsely claiming that a large number of concentration camps\u201d violating human rights have been established there. But what is the true story? The Grand Bazar (market) in Urumqi, Xinjiang, 2018 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}