Western reports called fabrications

Some foreign media outlets, including The New York Times and the Australian Broadcasting Corp, have fabricated and distorted reports about the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which violates press ethics, a spokesman for the region said.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists recently published an article illustrating the “personal experiences” of multiple “victims”, including Mirigul Tursun and Shaylagul Sawutbay. They said that they were harshly mistreated in a “concentration camp”, some “detainees” were hung on a wall and they were allowed no more than two minutes to use the bathroom, and at least nine female detainees died due to the terrible environment and medical conditions, Beijing-based Global Times quoted the spokesman as saying.

In fact, the spokesman said, the education and training centers in Xinjiang are schools, and they are set up in accordance with the law for those who participated in terrorist or extremist activities in circumstances that were not serious enough to constitute a crime or that posed a real danger but did not cause actual harm. They were never “concentration camps” at all, the spokesman said, and Mirigul from the Uygur ethnic group has never studied at any center. She also lied in saying that her younger brother was abused, resulting in his death, in the training center, the spokesman said.

Also, Shaylagul from the Kazak ethnic group had never worked in any center before she illegally went abroad, the spokesman said, so her claims of “trainees being hung on walls” or “restricted to use the toilet within two minutes” aren’t credible at all. She traveled to Kazakhstan and acquired refugee status by cheating, making up many lies about Xinjiang, which is despicable, the spokesman said.

In another recent report, the spokesman said, The New York Times described the July 5, 2009, riot in the regional capital of Urumqi as ethnic resistance suppressed by the government.

The riot was organized and plotted by “East Turkestan” forces at home and abroad who have always sought independence for so-called East Turkestan in Xinjiang, the spokesman said.

The rioters killed 197 people, including Uygurs, and injured more than 1,700. Many families have not yet come out of the shadows as their trauma still lingers, said the spokesman, who then asked, “Following the logic of The New York Times, aren’t the Sept 11 attacks also ethnic resistance, suppressed by the US government?”

What’s more, in complete contrast to The New York Times report, not only have the family members of the trainees never been discriminated against, governments at all levels in Xinjiang have helped them to solve problems with employment, medical services, education and poverty alleviation, the spokesman said.

Unlike the way it has been portrayed in many foreign media reports, the education and training work in Xinjiang is always based on facts and laws, without targeting any specific region, ethnic group or religion, the spokesman said.

Since their initiation, there has never been a foreigner enrolled at the centers. Recently, the Australian Broadcasting Corp falsely claimed that Xinjiang had captured 23 Australian citizens, and that 15 adults and six children from the Uygur community in Australia had been detained, the spokesman said. This is pure fabrication and denigration, which violates press ethics, the spokesman added.