Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Image copyright AFPImage caption India is affected by seasonal monsoon rains between June and September
At least 95 people have been killed by monsoon flooding in southern and western India, while hundreds of thousands have been evacuated from their homes, according to reports.
More than 40 of those killed were in the south-western state of Kerala.
The flooding and landslides caused by the heavy seasonal rainfall have left some areas cut off.
Officials have called on those affected to try to seek shelter on higher ground.
India is affected by monsoon rains between June and September. While crucial to replenishing water supplies, the heavy rainfall also results in death and destruction each year.
Disaster management officials said more than 100,000 people in Kerala had been evacuated into emergency relief camps, while more than 40 had been killed.
“There are around 80 places where flood and rains have triggered mudslides, which we cannot reach,” state police spokesman Pramod Kumar told AFP news agency.
With the rains predicted to continue there in the coming days, the military is attempting to airlift food to stranded villages.
Media caption Aerial shots of flood-hit Indian states
The south-western state of Karnataka and western state of Maharashtra – which is home to India’s financial capital Mumbai – are also experiencing heavy rains, with dozens of fatalities reported and hundreds of thousands of people evacuated.
India’s National Disaster Management Authority issued warnings on Saturday for “heavy” to “extremely heavy” rainfall in several parts of the country, as well as strong winds.
Chinese and US researchers take inspiration from the hardy insect to design a robot that moves fast and is hard to squash
A prototype soft robot, which is about the size of a postage stamp, was developed by a group of researchers from China and the US. Its design was inspired by the capabilities of the hardy cockroach. Photo: Handout
Cockroaches are near-indestructible little creatures. These hardy insects have existed since at least 320 million years ago, outliving dinosaurs. A cockroach can also carry loads of up to 900 times its body weight, shrink to a quarter of its height to fit into small crevices and live for a week without its head.
Inspired by the qualities of this humble bug, a group of researchers from China and the United States have created a prototype of a fast-moving and near-indestructible miniature robot, which could potentially replace sniffer dogs in detecting people trapped in a rubble after a major earthquake or similar disastrous event.
Researchers from China’s Tsinghua University and the University of California, Berkeley, published their study on so-called soft robots in the academic journal Science Robotics last week.
“Although the cockroach is an annoying pest, it has certain interesting features, including the ability to move fast in a narrow space and being hard to squash,” said Zhang Min, an assistant professor at Tsinghua University’s Graduate School in Shenzhen and one of the study’s authors, in an email interview. “These features inspired us to develop a fast-moving and robust soft robot.”
Their work on soft robots was conducted under the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute partnership, an initiative to collaborate with global researchers on fields such as environmental science and new energy technology.
Scientists have long taken inspiration from insects, including cockroaches, for engineering robots. Researchers from UC Berkeley previously developed a palm-sized, roach-like robot – about 20 times the size of the bug – for rescue use in 2017.
By comparison, the new prototype achieved breakthroughs in terms of size and more importantly, the speed and robustness.
The latest robot, which is about the size of a postage stamp and weighs less than one-tenth of a gram, is composed of a flexible piezoelectric thin film and a polymer skeleton with two legs.
This screenshot from a video provides a closer look at the prototype soft robot developed by a group of researchers from China and the US. Its features were inspired by the sturdy qualities of the humble cockroach. Photo: YouTube
Despite its petite frame, this prototype showed the fastest speed among insect-scale robots in a similar weight range, as well as “ultra-robustness”, according to Lin Liwei, a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley who directed the research, in a separate email interview.
It can move as fast as a cockroach with speeds of up to 20 body lengths per second. It also continued to move after it was stepped on by an adult human weighting 60 kilograms, which is about 1 million times heavier than the robot, according to the study.
In 2017, researchers of the PolyPEDAL Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, designed a compressible robot, CRAM, that was about 20 times the size of a real cockroach. Photo: Handout
Those features sets up the robot for potential application in disaster relief, a field in which its size, agility and resilience would be invaluable to help detect survivors trapped beneath the rubble in catastrophes, such as major earthquakes.
Earthquakes have caused much devastation in China, a seismically active country with the world’s biggest population. For example, about 87,000 people died and more than 370,000 were injured when a magnitude-8 earthquake struck Wenchuan, a county in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, in 2008.
“The key innovation is the soft materials and structures used in the robot,” Lin said. “If the robot is too soft, it won’t be able to move fast. If the robot is too stiff, it can’t withstand the force of human weight.” The study detailed how the right combination of soft materials and structure enabled the robot to operate efficiently.
While the robot is currently attached to thin cables for power, the researchers are working to integrate a battery and control circuit to get rid of the existing wire in its design, helping expand its use in other applications.
“We want to make the robot carry small sensors, like a gas sensor, to provide it with more functions,” said Zhong Junwen, a researcher at UC Berkeley and one of the authors of the study, in a separate email interview. “With such a sensor, the robot can detect harmful gas leakage.”
Tower falls on car outside the Chengdu worksite, killing motorist
A motorist was killed when a construction crane collapsed in Chengdu on Wednesday. Photo: Weibo
Authorities in southwest China are investigating a crane collapse at a construction site that killed one person and injured another.
The crane collapsed in Chengdu, Sichuan province, at around 7pm on Wednesday, falling onto a car parked near the site and killing the driver, the city’s urban renewal authority said in an online statement. A pedestrian also suffered minor injuries, it said.
Police were investigating the cause of the incident.
A crane accident at a construction site in Southwest China killed one person and injured another on Wednesday. Photo: Weibo
Photos and footage posted online showed emergency workers and others trying to move the crane off of a white car.
Shanghai-based news outlet ThePaper.cn quoted a witness as saying that the crane fell through the construction site wall and a number of trees.
By 10pm, the car had been towed away and the road reopened for use, according to reports.
In January, four people were killed and one was injured when a crane collapsed in Changsha, Hunan province, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Security forces shown tackling ‘demonstrators’ wearing black shirts
‘Anti-mob’ tactics prepare forces for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic
Shenzhen police broadcast live footage of a security exercise involving 12,000 officers rehearsing anti-riot drills. Photo: Weibo
More than 12,000 police officers assembled in Shenzhen in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Tuesday for a drill that included anti-riot measures similar to those seen on the streets of Hong Kong.
The drill was part of security preparations for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, Shenzhen police said on the force’s Weibo newsfeed.
“A drill will be held to increase troop morale, practise and prepare for the security of celebrations, [and] maintain national political security and social stability,” police said.
China mobilises 190,000 police officers to prepare for 70th anniversary celebrations
In live videos of the police drills shown on the Yizhibo network, officers in body armour, helmets and shields confronted groups of people in black shirts and red or yellow construction safety helmets – similar to those worn by Hong Kong protesters – who were holding flags, banners, batons and wooden boards.
Global Times
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Shenzhen #police drill attracted unusual attention as it features scenarios that resemble the ongoing riots in #HongKong. #香港http://bit.ly/2YobnJc (Video: Shenzhen News Radio)
One of the banners read “return my hard-earned money” – a slogan often used by migrant workers in protest against unpaid salaries.
“The practice is complete with mature anti-mob tactics. The police forces can present an anti-mob formation, which is flexible, suitable for different situations, with accurate aim and effective control,” a narrator said during the live broadcast.
As the drill escalated and more “rioters” were deployed, police fired tear gas and smoke covered the training ground.
A few minutes later, the rioters fired home-made gas bombs then set bogies alight and drove them at the police lines. The officers changed formations and pressed the rioters, making arrests. Police handlers and their dogs were also on the scene.
A blazing bogie is driven towards police lines during Shenzhen police’s anti-riot exercise. Photo: Weibo
Other drills included anti-smuggling and search-and-rescue exercises involving personnel from the People’s Liberation Army.
The drill was presented as preparation for the 70th anniversary celebrations but it came amid continued violence in the streets of Hong Kong and two incidents of the Chinese national flag being thrown into Victoria Harbour.
Hong Kong has been engulfed in two months of turmoil stemming from opposition to the now-suspended extradition bill.
Police handlers and their dogs were deployed against people dressed like Hong Kong demonstrators. Photo: Weibo
“Is this hinting at Hong Kong?” a commenter on the Shenzhen police Weibo thread asked.
“We are doing drills today, and they can enter into real practice in Hong Kong in the future. We can send thousands of anti-mob squads over and strike hard at the radical traitors, those Hong Kong independence supporters,” another user said.
Since protests escalated in Hong Kong, Beijing has reiterated its “unflagging support” for embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her administration to take lawful action to restore order, and warned that the city was entering “a most dangerous phase” with violence on the streets.
Rocket artilleries fire in a military presentation in Korla, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 3, 2019. The opening ceremony for the competitions hosted by China as part of the International Army Games 2019 was held on Saturday in Korla, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Chinese army will host four contests in areas such as infantry combat vehicles and weapon repair. Teams coming from 12 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America will take part. (Photo by Wang Junqiang/Xinhua)
URUMQI, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — The opening ceremony for the competitions hosted by China as part of the International Army Games 2019 was held on Saturday in Korla, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The Chinese army will host four contests in areas such as infantry combat vehicles and weapon repair. Teams coming from 12 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America will take part.
During the period of the competitions, cultural exchanges and equipment exhibitions will be held.
The Chinese army has taken part in the games since 2014 and became a host in 2017.
China’s Wang Yi and US’ Mike Pompeo at summit in Thailand to sell their visions of future for Southeast Asia
Analysts expect pragmatism from Asean as world’s two biggest economic powers play diplomatic game
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) greets his Philippine counterpart Teodoro Locsin at the Asean meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Xinhua
China and the United States are on a mission to strengthen ties with allies and expand their influence in Southeast Asia this week as their trade war enters a second year.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Bangkok on Wednesday to promote the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi touched down a day earlier to advance Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The US Department of State said Pompeo’s trip was aimed at deepening Washington’s “long-standing alliances and vibrant bilateral relations with these countries, and [to] reaffirm our commitment to Asean, which is central to our vision for the Indo-Pacific region”.
In Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that while their meeting was yet to be set, Wang and Pompeo were expected to meet and talk “frankly” about bilateral relations.
“I think that it is indeed necessary for China and the United States to maintain communication, as the two countries face many situations,” Hua said. “The issues would be communicated frankly”.
The Indo-Pacific strategy is a military and economic framework to contain China’s expansion into the Pacific and Indian oceans, and give an alternative to Beijing’s flagship belt and road development programme.
En route to Thailand, Pompeo said that after a stalled start to US Indo-Pacific policy during the Barack Obama administration, Washington’s strategy was well on its way to bearing fruit for the US and its allies.
South China Sea tensions, US-China trade war loom over Asean summit
“We have watched these coalitions build out,” he said.
Pompeo dismissed claims that China’s sphere of influence among Asean members was growing, saying such speculation was “not factually accurate”.
“[Asean countries] are looking for partners that are going to help them build out their economies and to take good care of their people,” he said, pledging greater engagement from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Pompeo was expected to sit down on Friday with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts to consolidate their trilateral alliance in the region.
He was also expected to hold talks with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai that day.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at Asean in Thailand. Photo: EPA-EFE
Meanwhile, Wang launched his belt and road pitch to his Cambodian, Philippine and Indonesian counterparts after he arrived in Thailand for the gathering, which ends on Saturday.
The belt and road projects are largely commercial and aimed at strengthening land and sea infrastructure linking Asia, Europe and Africa. But they raised suspicion in the West that they are aimed at eroding the US-led world order.
During his meeting with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Wang said: “China is willing to have high-level exchanges with the Philippines, to deepen the mutual trust, and promote the Belt and Road Initiative [in the Philippines] … to accelerate the development of regional infrastructure.”
Can China’s trade boost with Asean help get the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership over the line?
This year’s Asean forum was taking place as countries were more receptive to Chinese initiatives, in part due to the unpredictability of the US administration, according to Rajeev Ranjan Charturvedy, a visiting fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“Policy uncertainties under the Trump administration have already pushed some Asean countries towards China in ways that would have seemed unlikely a few years ago,” Charturvedy said.
Analysts said Trump’s “America first” approach shaped his Asean policy. The president had vowed to apply “punishments” to countries – including Asean member states – for contributing to the US trade deficit.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is talking to Asean counterparts at a time when they are receptive to China’s proposals, an analyst says. Photo: AFP
Trump was absent at the Asean summit in Singapore last year, leading to concerns that Washington’s commitment to Asia was declining.
Charturvedy said the Asean forum’s focus was about building constructive regionalism, but China’s attitudes to security could pose a challenge.
“[However] Asean countries clearly hope not to be forced to choose between the US and Chinese offers. Rather, they would like more freedom of choice while accommodating for a larger role for China in the region,” he said.
Clarita Carlos, a professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, suggested that Asean members would be pragmatic during the forum.
Robert Lighthizer warns Vietnam over trade deficit with US
They would try to find their own balance between the two major powers – as countries rather than a bloc – to try to maximise each state’s interests and advantages, Carlos said.
“Vietnam has a love-hate relationship with China, especially as a winner in the ongoing US-China trade war,” she said. “Singapore has close relations with China. There are also ups and downs in the relationship with China for Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.”
BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) — The attempt of some Western countries to tarnish the image of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is doomed to fail, and the fight against terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang should be supported and respected, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday.
Recently, ambassadors from 50 countries to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) have sent a joint letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to voice their support for China’s position on issues related to Xinjiang.
The 50 ambassadors, who are from countries including Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Cuba, have collectively stated for the first time that the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures, including the establishment of vocational education and training centers, have effectively safeguarded basic human rights in Xinjiang, spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press briefing.
According to media reports, 24 members of the UNHRC have previously signed a letter criticizing China’s position on relevant issues.
“The 24 members, with a total population of no more than 600 million, are all developed Western countries, none of them being an Islamic or developing country. While of the 50 countries that support China are from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, with a total population of nearly 2 billion, 28 are members of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, and their population is more than twice that of the 24 members that criticized China,” Hua said. “So it’s obvious who is right and who is wrong on the matter of Xinjiang,” she added.
Hua said many of the ambassadors who supported China’s Xinjiang policy have visited Xinjiang and witnessed the truth.
As the ambassadors pointed out, those who had visited Xinjiang found what they saw and heard was completely different from what was described in Western media reports, according to Hua.
“The ambassadors also appreciated China’s achievements in human rights, believed that Xinjiang’s establishment of vocational education and training centers, as well as other counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures, effectively guaranteed basic human rights and urged relevant countries to stop their unfounded accusations against China,” said the spokesperson.
“This fully shows that the international community has its fair judgment on the development of Xinjiang,” said Hua, adding that attempt to smear Xinjiang and put pressure on China in the name of “human rights” will never succeed.
Pointing out that the current problem in Xinjiang is the issue of counter-terrorism and extremism rather than religious and human rights issues, Hua said the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization struggle in Xinjiang deserve support, respect and understanding.
“Faced with severe threats of terrorism and extremism, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken a series of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures according to law, including the establishment of vocational education and training centers,” said Hua, adding that those measures have turned the situation around.
“In almost three years, not a single violent or terrorist incident took place in Xinjiang. The region now enjoys social stability and unity among all ethnic groups. People there are living a happy life with a stronger sense of fulfillment and security. They endorse the government’s policies and measures wholeheartedly,” said the spokesperson.
Noting that many of the 24 countries that denounce China’s Xinjiang policy have been victims of terrorism, Hua said relevant people and officials from these 24 countries are welcome to visit Xinjiang to learn about Xinjiang’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization experience.
Hua said China is working with all parties to ensure that multilateral human rights mechanisms stick to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Human rights issues should be dealt with in an objective, fair and non-selective way. “We need to advance international human rights cause in a sound manner through constructive dialogue and cooperation.”
“We resolutely oppose any country’s act of using the Human Rights Council and other mechanisms to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and wantonly criticize, smear and pressure others. We urge the relevant countries to correct their mistakes at once, not to politicize the relevant issue or practice double standards, and stop meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs,” she added.
YINCHUAN, July 27 (Xinhua) — Hu Chunhua, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has urged more efforts to address weak links in the country’s poverty alleviation campaign, including drinking water safety in the impoverished areas.
Hu, also chief of the State Council’s leading group of poverty alleviation and development, made the remarks during an inspection tour from Friday to Saturday in the city of Guyuan in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
After visits to some impoverished villages, Hu said efforts should be made to ensure compulsory education, basic medical care, and housing for the rural poor, while drinking water safety should be guaranteed.
The country’s central authorities should speed up the implementation of poverty relief policies, while local governments should increase fund use efficiency, he said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wraps up tour of Brazil and Chile, as Colombian president heads for Beijing
Ecuador president tells US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ‘smaller countries pay when the big ones fight’
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is greeted by an honour guard as he arrives at the Itamaraty Palace for a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Ernesto Araujo on Thursday. Photo: AP
Latin American countries are caught in the middle of a geopolitical tug of war between Beijing and Washington as China boosts its ties in the region in a bid to counterbalance the effects of its trade war with the US.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi wraps up a tour of Latin America on Sunday which began last week in Brazil and ended with an official visit to Chile. He returns to Beijing on the same day Colombia’s President Ivan Duque Marquez arrives for a three-day state visit to China which will include a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wang was in Brazil for the latest summit of foreign ministers from the BRICS countries – an association of emerging countries made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – as well as the third China-Brazil foreign ministers’ comprehensive strategic dialogue with Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo.
China has overtaken the US as Brazil’s largest trading partner, with Brazilian soybeans – one of the country’s biggest exports – and other agricultural products replacing American imports since the start of the US-China trade war a year ago.
Brazilian soybeans – one of the country’s biggest exports – and other farm products are being sold to China as a result of the trade war. Photo: Reuters
The growing importance of China to Brazil’s economy has created a difficult position for President Jair Bolsonaro, who accused Beijing of trying to buy Brazil during his election campaign, but changed tack on assuming office in January.
In March, Bolsonaro called China his country’s “main partner, politically as well as economically and commercially” and announced plans to travel to Beijing this year, a visit which was confirmed on Tuesday for late October.
China is now Latin America’s second largest trading partner with bilateral trade at US$307.4 billion, growing 18.9 per cent over the previous year, according to China’s ministry of commerce, in a relationship focused on commodity imports, including mining products like copper and energy, as well as soybeans and other agricultural goods.
While the US and China have tentatively agreed to resume talks in Shanghai next week, China and Latin American countries are likely to continue deepening their trade relations as production chains realign as a result of the trade war, according to Gustavo Oliveira, assistant professor of global and international studies at the University of California, Irvine.
“This means Chinese imports of Latin American agricultural and mineral commodities, and Latin American imports of Chinese manufactured products and hi-tech, might contribute to China’s ability to stand its ground against US pressure,” he said.
China in Latin America: partner or predator?
Oliveira said domestic contradictions in most Latin American countries complicated relations with China, as few leaders had the capacity to press or leverage China for much. “Unfortunately, therefore, most in this crop of Latin American leaders are basically placing themselves as junior partners or pawns in the geopolitical tug of war between the US and China.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put the pressure on Latin American countries over their relationship with China during his four-day tour of the region last weekend, when he visited Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, and El Salvador.
In a joint interview with Pompeo during the visit, Ecuador’s new President Lenin Moreno defended the country’s China ties, and urged Washington and Beijing to resolve their conflicts for the benefit of other nations in the region.
“We hope that the US and China, the greatest powers in the world now, will find agreement easily because, unfortunately, when the big ones are discussing or fighting and have conflicts, the ones that are paying for all of that are the smaller countries,” he said.
“Now, when two elephants fight, the ones who lose are the insects who are of course being crushed by the elephants in the attempt to evade them.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno hold a joint press conference during Pompeo’s tour of Latin America on July 20. Photo: EPA-EFE
Pompeo blasted China’s role in the region during a previous tour of South America in April, when he singled out Beijing’s support for President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. Maduro is backed by Beijing, Russia and other allies, while the US and many European countries have supported opposition leader Juan Guaido as legitimate president since elections in January.
Speaking from Chile on that tour, Pompeo said Beijing’s calls for non-intervention in Venezuela were “hypocritical” and aimed at protecting Beijing’s investments in the country, as well as debts owed to China by Venezuela.
Pompeo also accused Beijing of “sowing discord” in the region through debt traps. “When China does business in places like Latin America, it often injects corrosive capital into the economic bloodstream, giving life to corruption and eroding good governance,” he said.
Professor Cui Shoujun of Renmin University in Beijing said Washington’s concerns about “debt trap diplomacy” in Latin America reflected concerns that China’s growing involvement in financing infrastructure and development projects would make the region more pro-China.
“China’s interests in Latin America go beyond raw materials extraction,” he said. “The biggest point of tension between the US and China in the region is perhaps that China presents an alternative model for development that is very different from the Western model.”
‘Mr Pompeo, you can stop’: China hits back over Latin America criticism
While the US was drumming up tensions about China across the world, Beijing was not openly retaliating but responding with investment and trade for global partners, said Kevin Gallagher, researcher on China-Latin America ties, and professor at Boston University.
“The US points fingers and makes angry speeches in the region as China cuts investment deals and helps address infrastructure needs,” he said.
“Latin American countries’ governments are rightly keeping their heads down on the broader geopolitical winds, and are getting down to business with their largest trading partner.”
GENEVA, July 27 (Xinhua) — Ambassadors from 50 countries to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) have co-signed a letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to voice their support for China’s position on issues related to its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Earlier on July 12, a number of ambassadors in Geneva sent the joint letter to show their support for China, and as of Friday evening, more ambassadors had joined, the Chinese Mission to the UNOG revealed.
In a statement issued on Friday night, the Chinese mission said that some other countries had also expressed their support in separate letters or press statements.
In the joint letter, the ambassadors commend China for its economic and social progress, effective counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures, and strong guarantee of human rights.
They appreciate the opportunities provided by China for diplomatic envoys, officials of international organizations, and media professionals to visit Xinjiang, and point to the contrast between Xinjiang in the eyes of those who have visited it and the one portrayed by some western media.
The ambassadors also urge a certain group of countries to stop using uncorroborated information to make unfounded accusations against China.
“I was surprised that some people call these vocational training and education centers concentration or internment camps,” Vadim Pisarevich, deputy permanent representative of Belarus to the UNOG, told Xinhua.
“They’re nothing of the kind. They look like ordinary educational facilities and even I said that they are more than this because they provide life skills training to the students,” Pisarevich said.
They are “very useful institutions for addressing the problems of terrorism, extremism and separatism,” he said.
“Terrorism and extremism are an intractable challenge across the world. In the face of its grave threat, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region responded with a number of lawful steps, including setting up vocational education and training centers, to prevent and combat terrorism and extremism,” the Chinese Mission to the UNOG said in its statement.
“Facts speak louder than words, and justice cannot be overshadowed. The great diversity of countries co-signing the letter — from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, especially the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) — makes it clear that the international community has drawn a fair conclusion about Xinjiang’s human rights achievement and counter-terrorism and de-radicalization outcome,” the statement said.
“Those that seek to use human rights as an excuse to slander and pressure China have only themselves to deceive,” it added.
“We oppose any attempt to use human rights issues as a cover for interference in a country’s internal affairs. We urge those who are doing so to change course, refrain from politicization and double standards, and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights,” it said.
At a press conference on Friday, China’s Ambassador to the UNOG Chen Xu also rebuked some Western nations for slandering China over Xinjiang, noting that China doesn’t accept these “groundless accusations.”
Jamshed Khamidov, head of Tajikistan’s mission in Geneva, said his government opposes any attempts to use the Human Rights Council for particular political purposes, and efforts should be made to avoid any politicization of the Human Rights Council.
“We know the situation in the Xinjiang region. We know how much the government of China is doing … and what kind of measures were implemented in this region to support its peace, security and development,” he said.
In visits to the vocational training and education centers in Xinjiang’s Urumqi and Kashi, Zenon Mukongo Ngay, head of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mission in Geneva, said he was impressed with the “level of development” in Xinjiang and how the people in the centers receive education for getting a job.
The Chinese mission also said that together with all parties, China is committed to promoting the healthy development of the international human rights cause by encouraging multilateral human rights institutions to stick to the purpose and principles of the UN Charter, handle human rights issues in an objective, impartial and non-selective manner, and engage in constructive dialogues and cooperation.
Image copyright AFP
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 