Editorial

The so-called Uyghur Act of 2019 passed by the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday is not just a vicious misrepresentation of China’s legitimate fight against extremism, it is gross interference in its domestic affairs, and a naked attempt to disrupt China’s national rejuvenation.

Passed with a 407 to 1 vote, the Act links the China-US relationship to the alleged “mass internment” of Uygurs in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and seeks to punish Chinese institutions and officials the US assumes responsible.

As the Chinese Foreign Ministry said when expressing China’s strong indignation and resolute opposition to the move, the bill is intended as a “malicious assault on the Chinese government’s governance of Xinjiang”, and is the latest manifestation of the attempts by the US to interfere in China’s internal affairs, as it seeks to put “maximum pressure” on the country, which it regards as a threat to the hegemonic privileges it has become accustomed to.

China’s de-extremism policies in Xinjiang are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion — Washington’s habitual calling cards when it is up to no good in another country — but about the fight against violence, terror and separatism.

Those on Capitol Hill who approved the bill have obviously ignored the white paper Beijing issued clarifying its anti-extremism initiatives in Xinjiang, which include the education centers the US has been trying to misrepresent as internment camps.

More than 1,000 international officials, representatives of international organizations, media outlets, religious institutions and scholars have accepted China’s invitation to visit Xinjiang and see for themselves the situation in the region, and they have overwhelmingly praised the counter-extremism program, and recommended it as worth being emulated.

But then as the bill states, it is not really about countering what it alleges is China’s “mass arbitrary detention of Turkic Muslims”, but for “other purposes”. Purposes left unspecified. For as usual, the US is sugarcoating its otherwise unpalatable intentions as support for human rights.

Like the Hong Kong Act, the Xinjiang bill making its way through the US Congress is maliciously intended. The long-arm troublemaking of the US reveals not only its dirty hands, but also the hypocritical face of friendship that masks its sinister motives.

When the Hong Kong Act was signed into law, Beijing responded by announcing sanctions on the US. It seems an odds-on bet that more can be expected if the latest approval for State Department meddling goes into the statute books. Especially since this is a stab in the back, given Beijing’s efforts to stabilize the already turbulent China-US relationship.

This bill and the Hong Kong Act send the explicit message that the US is officially extending frictions beyond trade into the broader, if not overall, relationship, adding to the chill that has already permeated their ties.