The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa refutes the BBC’s false report on Xinjiang-related Issues.
Recently, some international media represented by BBC, once again issued sensational and false reports to smear China’s Xinjiang-related policies without verifying the truth and facts. This is a serious breach of professional ethics which can do nothing but to undermine those media’s own reputation.
First, there is no so-called “re-education camp” in Xinjiang. The vocational training centers set up in Xinjiang in accordance with laws are schools. They are no different from the Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP) of the UK, or the de-radicalization centers in France. They are all active steps to realize the prevention of terrorism and radicalization goals so as to eradicate terrorism and religious extremism at the source. They are in line with the principles and the spirit embodied in a number of international documents on counter-terrorism, such as the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism.
Second, there is no so-called “systemic sexual abuse and mistreatment against Uyghur women”. China is a country with the rule of law. Respecting and protecting human rights is a basic principle enshrined in China’s Constitution, and it’s embodied in our legal system and government’s work. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we have achieved unprecedented progress in women’s liberation and development. Women of all ethnic groups enjoy political rights, rights relating to culture and education, rights of labor and social security, rights relating to property, rights of person, and rights relating to marriage and family. The vocational training centers strictly follow the Constitution and laws, guarantee the basic rights of trainees, and forbid any insult or abuse on them. Many female graduates publicly talked about how they got rid of extremist ideologies, learned labor skills and now enjoying a normal life.
This is not the first time BBC has made false reports on Xinjiang-related issues. Last July, BBC “News Night” revealed the so-called “compulsory sterilization” of the vocational training centers. The Chinese Embassy in the UK refuted it with ironclad evidence.
It is not difficult to find that behind these reports is a Uyghur woman named Zumrat Dawut, who claimed to have all sorts of testimonies. However, they all turned out to be lies.
She claimed to have been detained in a “re-education camp”, but the fact is she never studied in any vocational training center in Xinjiang.
She claimed to be forced to undergo “forced sterilization” with a hysterectomy, but the fact is when she was giving birth to her third child in the maternity wards of a women and children’s hospital in Urumqi in March 2013, she sighed a childbirth consent form voluntarily, requesting “to have a cesarean section and tubal ligation”, and then the hospital conducted operation as she required. She was never sterilized, not to mention a hysterectomy.
She also claimed that her father was detained and investigated several times by the Xinjiang authorities and died recently from unclear causes. But the fact is that her father stayed with the family until he died of heart disease on October 12, 2019 and was never detained or investigated. Zumrat Dawut’s two elder brothers have offered clarifications on all these.
This woman has become an actress and a tool for anti-China forces’ attacks on and hyping up of Xinjiang. It has been proved that none of the so-called investigative reports of BBC is in line with the facts. Instead it staged an “Oscar” drama in which the actor was pre-found and the script was pre-written.
Xinjiang is following the right path and everything it does is open and transparent. There is nothing to hide. Since 2018, more than 1 200 UN officials, foreign diplomats posted in China, relevant countries’ permanent representatives to Geneva, journalists and religious groups from over 100 countries have visited Xinjiang. We hope people can really listen to what they have seen and heard in Xinjiang.
We welcome people from other countries to visit Xinjiang and learn the real situation there. At the same time, we are firmly opposed to interference in China’s internal affairs by any country or individual under the pretext of human rights, and the hyping-up of the so-called “investigation” in Xinjiang by someone who is biased against China with the presumption of guilt.
In order to help the South African media and people learn the real situation in Xinjiang, and not to be deceived and misled by those disinformation and biased reports, we have posted Ambassador Chen Xiaodong’s relevant signed article and the “24 lies and truths about Xinjiang-related issues” on our website, Facebook and Ambassador Chen’s Twitter.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL.