‘13,000 terrorists held in China’s Xinjiang region’

BEIJING: China arrested nearly 13,000 terrorists and dismantled over 1,500 terror gangs in the northwestern Xinjiang province since 2014, the government said in a new policy paper on Monday, continuing to defend the controversial security measures implemented in the region.

Beijing faces international criticism for setting up what the UN has called detention camps holding more than a million members from the Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). China, however, says the sites are actually “vocational training centres” and “campuses” for livelihood training and de-radicalisation of those influenced by extremism.

The new white paper titled “The Fight against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang” is Beijing’s latest effort to defend its, what many say, hardline policies in the remote region.

Released by the State Council Information Office, the paper says: “For some time China’s Xinjiang, under the combined influence of separatists, religious extremists and terrorists, has seen frequent incidents of 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”.

As a result of its counter-terror efforts, local authorities in

XINJIANG FACED A PARTICULAR CHALLENGE SINCE 9/11 ATTACKS IN THE US, AS EAST TURKESTAN EXTREMISTS RAMPED UP ACTIVITIES IN CHINA, SAYS WHITE PAPER

XUAR, since 2014, Xinjiang has “destroyed 1,588 violent and terrorist gangs, arrested 12,995 terrorists, seized 2,052 explosive devices, punished 30,645 people for 4,858 illegal religious activities, and confiscated 345,229 copies of illegal religious materials,” it added.

It has adopted a policy that “strikes the right balance between compassion and severity,” the white paper said.

The policy paper added that only a minority of people face strict punishment, such as ringleaders of terror groups, while those influenced by extremist thinking receive education and training to teach them the error of their ways.

Exile group the World Uyghur Congress swiftly denounced the white paper.

“China is deliberately distorting the truth. Counter-terrorism is a political excuse to suppress the Uighurs. The real aim of the so-called de-radicalisation is to eliminate faith,” WUC spokesperson Dilxat Raxit told Reuters news agency.