Fighting Against Terrorism
A recent white paper outlines ongoing antiterrorism efforts in Xinjiang
Awhite paper on the fight against terrorism and extremism and the protection of human rights in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was issued by the State Council Information Office on March 18.
Titled The Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang, the white paper, consisting of seven main sections, states China’s firm stand against all forms of terrorism and extremism and highlights the marked changes in the region’s social environment in recent years.
Firm hand
“It is indisputable that Xinjiang is an inseparable part of the Chinese territory,” says the white paper. “Xinjiang’s ethnic cultures are an inseparable part of Chinese civilization.”
For some time, China’s Xinjiang, under the combined influence of separatists, religious extremists and terrorists, has sustained frequent terrorist attacks, which have been detrimental to the life and property of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and have trampled on people’s dignity, according to the white paper.
Terrorist and extremist forces in Xinjiang, driven by the goal of separatism, have engaged in sabotaging activities that have gravely undermined local stability.
Incomplete statistics show that from 1990 to the end of 2016, separatist, terrorist and extremist forces launched thousands of attacks in Xinjiang, killing large numbers of innocent people and hundreds of police officers, and causing immeasurable damage to property, the white paper says.
“These inhuman, anti-social and barbaric acts have brought enormous suffering to all ethnic groups in Xinjiang,” it says.
Separatism is the hotbed on which terrorism and extremism take root in Xinjiang. For a long time, terrorist and extremist forces have been beating the drum of separatist activities by distorting, fabricating and falsifying the history of Xinjiang, exaggerating the cultural differences between ethnic groups, instigating isolation and hatred, and advocating religious extremism, the document says.
The Chinese Government stands firmly against all forms of terrorism and extremism, and is relentless in striking hard, in accordance with the law, at any conduct advocating terrorism and extremism and any action that involves organizing, planning and carrying out terrorist activities, or infringing upon citizens’ human rights, the white paper says.
“Based on its own conditions, Xinjiang has been making intensive counterterrorism and deradicalization efforts. Upholding the principle of fighting and preventing terrorism at the same time, the region has been taking aggressive action against violent terrorist crimes, and at the same time, addressing the problem at its source,” the white paper states.
The government has been making every effort to protect the fundamental human rights of citizens from terrorism and extremism. Specific measures include improving public well-being, promoting knowledge of the law through education and offering aid through vocational education and training centers in accordance with the law.
Xinjiang has been actively providing help