West has double standards over Xinjiang, says daily

SHANGHAI: The western media is guilty of “double standards” when it comes to reporting on China’s restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, the official China Daily said in an editorial.

China has faced an outcry from human rights groups, foreign governments and United Nations rights experts over what they say are mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim ethnic Uighur minority in Xinjiang.

Beijing has denied accusations that it is systematically violating the rights of Xinjiang’s Muslims, saying it is only cracking down on extremism and “splittism” in the region.

China Daily said the “false picture” of Xinjiang in the foreign media was “aimed at smearing the Chinese government”.

“A double standard is put into service to serve this end – China, critics in the West say, only imagines it faces a terrorist threat, and it is just Western countries that face the real threat of violence born of extremism,” it said.

China says Xinjiang faces a threat from militants and separatists in an area where in recent years hundreds have been killed in unrest between Uighurs and members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

Responding to recent comments by US Vice-President Mike Pence that China is engaged in “religious persecution” in Xinjiang, the editorial said Muslims in the region were vulnerable to extremist overseas propaganda and needed education and vocational skills.

The UN human rights panel said in August that China is believed to be holding up to one million ethnic Uighurs in a secretive system of “internment camps” in Xinjiang, where they undergo political education.