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China rolls out PR push on Muslim internments
BEIJING, Oct 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – China on Tuesday issued an ardent
defence of the alleged mass internment of minorities in its far west Xinjiang
region, with a regional official insisting that authorities are preventing
terrorism through “vocational education” centres.
Beijing has sought to counter a global outcry against the facilities with a
series of op-eds and interviews and a roll out of new regulations that
retroactively codify the use of a system of extra-judicial “reeducation”
camps in Xinjiang.
Up to one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic minorities
are believed to be held in such centres, according to estimates cited by a
United Nations panel.
Former inmates have said they found themselves incarcerated for
transgressions such as wearing long beards and face veils or sharing Islamic
holiday greetings on social media, a process that echoes the decades of
brutal thought reform under Mao Zedong.
The programme has come under increasing fire from the international
community, receiving particular censure from the United States and the UN
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Chinese authorities initially denied the existence of the facilities. But
they have changed their tune as satellite imagery and documents issued by
their own government have made that position untenable.
In recent weeks the story has shifted from outright dismissal to
acknowledgement that the camps exist, with the caveat that they are being
used primarily for “vocational education” in a bid to halt separatist
sentiments and religious extremism.
– ‘Safe and stable’ –
In a rare interview with China’s official Xinhua news service published
Tuesday, the chairman of Xinjiang’s government, Shohrat Zakir, defended the
use of the centres, saying that the region was now “safe and stable”.
The official did not say how many people were being held in the centres.
“Through vocational training, most trainees have been able to reflect on
their mistakes and see clearly the essence and harm of terrorism and
religious extremism,” he said.
Zakir said the facilities were intended to improve job skills and Mandarin
abilities among minorities with “a limited command of the country’s common
language and a limited sense and knowledge of the law.”
Those who struggled to find work as a result, he added, were “vulnerable to
the instigation and coercion of terrorism and extremism.”
He said that the “free” programmes were limited in duration, and “trainees”
signed a contract with the centres that laid out a clear plan of study and
included a stipend.
Asked about the future of the programmes, Zakir said “some trainees” were
“expected to complete their courses successfully by the end of this year.”
Zakir’s claims “fly in the face of all available evidence and are an insult
to both those suffering in the camps and the families of those missing,” said
Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon.
“No amount of spin can hide the fact that the Chinese authorities are
undertaking a campaign of systematic repression.”
– ‘Eradicating extremism’ –
Chinese officials and state media have spent weeks defending China’s
actions in Xinjiang, where riots and attacks led to hundreds of deaths in
recent years.
Op-eds by Chinese diplomats have appeared in newspapers around the world,
arguing that the programme is an effective means of eliminating the threat
posed to the region by religious extremism.
An editorial in the nationalist tabloid the Global Times warned foreign
governments on Tuesday not to meddle in Xinjiang’s affairs.
“Obviously vocational education is a periodic and temporary plan aimed at
eradicating extremism,” it said, adding that criticism was “just messing up
the whole thing and creating a narrative against China.”
Taking to Twitter — a social media platform that is blocked in China —
the paper’s editor-in-chief Hu Xijin said officials had told him the figures
for the number of people in “vocational education” were “much fewer than the
‘1 million or so’ speculated by the outside world.”
“Chinese officials didn’t reveal the true number to avoid falling into the
stats trap, giving Western media another excuse to hype up the issue,” he
added.
The positive image of the centres portrayed in the PR drive is belied by
testimonies from former detainees who describe harsh treatment in the
facilities.
Large numbers of families outside of China say their relatives in Xinjiang
were spirited away by police never to be heard from again.
Critics have warned that mass incarcerations and forced cultural
assimilation of China’s western Muslim minorities risk further inflaming and
perpetuating separatist anger.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1911 HRS