BEIJING: The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday said the U.S. attempt to interfere in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of Xinjiang-related issues is “futile,” stressing that the country will take all measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.
The U.S. Department of State submitted a report to the Congress on July 14, which alleged human rights violations in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
“The so-called report is a groundless smear of China’s human rights situation in Xinjiang,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference, adding the China-related content in the report is a “reckless attack against China’s Xinjiang policy.”
He pointed that the “baseless report blatantly violated the international law and the basic norms of international relations,” saying it is Washington’s “usual ploy of fabricating lies and rumours about Xinjiang-related issues.”
China has repeatedly stressed that the so-called Xinjiang-related issues are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion at all, but about combating violent terrorism and separatism, Wang said, adding that the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures taken in Xinjiang have turned the security situation around.
For five years in a row, not a single violent and terrorist incident has taken place in Xinjiang, he said.
According to Wang, since the founding of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Xinjiang region’s economic output has expanded by 160 times and the Uygur population there has surged from 2.2 million to around 12 million, with life expectancy across Xinjiang rising from 30 years to 74.7 years over the past six decades.
“The U.S. side has turned a blind eye to its own human rights crimes, but is eager to concoct disinformation targeting other countries,” the spokesperson noted, adding that such U.S. actions have long been known to the international community.
