Archive for ‘religious extremism’

20/04/2020

Educational situation in China’s Xinjiang much improved: scholar

KATHMANDU, April 19 (Xinhua) — A German scholar has recently found that the right to education for Uygurs and people of other ethnic groups is well protected in China’s Xinjiang region, as young people there enjoy increasingly better opportunities.

Michael Heinrich, who has been teaching German in Minzu University of China for more than five years, said in an article published on Online Khabar news website in March that he has “paid close attention to the development of Chinese education in recent years, especially the education situation in ethnic minority areas.”

Heinrich said he has taught a Xinjiang Uygur student, who often talks with him about the education situation in her hometown and appreciates government policies on education.

The Uygur student has told Heinrich that she lives in a place where she receives Islamic religious education and China’s nine-year compulsory education, and the Uygur students in Xinjiang can enjoy preferential policies, such as extra points in college entrance examination, special policies for college admissions, and employment policy support.

In recent years, the Chinese government has intensified policy support on education in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and increased investment in educational resources, especially those on vocational education, the article read.

“Through vocational education, more Uyghur Muslim students can enhance their survival skills and work harder by themselves and improve their living standards with these hands,” it said.

For some time, Xinjiang has been plagued by terrorism, religious extremism and separatism, according to the passage, and carrying out vocational education and training in Xinjiang is an effective measure to promote the rule of law and a practical action to protect the vital interests of people of all ethnic groups there.

It is also a just move in fighting extremism and terrorism to contribute to the stability in Xinjiang, it added.

Some Western media outlets as well as some U.S. politicians often slander the Chinese government under the guise of “human rights,” which does not only disregard the facts but also interferes with China’s sovereignty, Heinrich pointed out.

The situation in Xinjiang that they saw was completely different from the stories told by some Western politicians and media, Heinrich quoted some people who have visited Xinjiang and witnessed its development as saying.

The rights to life and development of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected to the largest extent, Heinrich added.

Source: Xinhua

10/12/2019

China Uighurs: Detainees ‘free’ after ‘graduating’, official says

Shohrat Zakir, deputy secretary of the Communist Party committee for China's Xinjiang and chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, attends a news conference in BeijingImage copyright REUTERS
Image caption Shohrat Zakir told reporters the released detainees now had an “improved quality of life”

A senior Chinese official has said that all of the people sent to detention centres in the western region of Xinjiang have now been released.

Regional government chairman Shohrat Zakir told reporters those held in what Beijing say are “re-education camps” had now “graduated”.

It is not possible to independently verify Mr Zakir’s claims.

Rights groups say the camps are actually high-security prisons, holding hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

Beijing has always denied this, despite the prevalence of high-security features, like watchtowers and razor wire, and leaked documents detailing how inmates at the so-called centres are locked up, indoctrinated and punished.

What is Beijing saying?

Mr Zakir told reporters in the Chinese capital on Monday that everyone in the centres had completed their courses and – with the “help of the government”- had “realised stable employment [and] improved their quality of life”.

He said that, in future, training would be based on “independent will” and people would have “the freedom to come and go”.

Media caption The BBC’s John Sudworth meets Uighur parents in Turkey who say their children are missing in China

BBC China correspondent John Sudworth points out it is not possible to verify the claims, as access for journalists is tightly controlled and it’s impossible to contact local residents without placing them at risk of detention.

In recent months, independent reports have suggested that some camp inmates are being released, only to face house arrest, other restrictions on their movement or forced labour in factories.

What could be behind the move?

Pressure has been increasing on Beijing in recent months.

A number of high-profile media reports based on leaks to the New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have shone a spotlight on what is happening at the network of centres, which are believed to hold more than a million people, mainly Uighur Muslims and other minorities.

Then last week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to counter what it calls the “arbitrary detention, torture, and harassment” of the Uighurs, calling for “targeted sanctions” on members of the Chinese government – and names the Communist Party secretary in the Xinjiang autonomous region, Chen Quanguo.

The bill still needs approval from the Senate and from President Donald Trump.

However, Mr Zakir used the press conference to dismiss the numbers detained as “pure fabrication”, reiterating Beijing’s argument that the centres were needed to combat violent religious extremism.

Media caption“An electric baton to the back of the head” – a former inmate described conditions at a secret camp to the BBC

“When the lives of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang were seriously threatened by terrorism, the US turned a deaf ear,” Mr Zakir said at a press briefing.

“Now that Xinjiang society is steadily developing and people of all ethnicities are living and working in peace, the US feels uneasy, and attacks and smears Xinjiang.”

What’s going on in Xinjiang?

Reports of widespread detentions first began to emerge in 2018, when a UN human rights committee was told there were credible allegations that China had “turned the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internment camp”.

Rights groups also say there’s growing evidence of oppressive surveillance against people living in the region.

The Chinese authorities said the “vocational training centres” were being used to combat violent religious extremism. However, evidence showed many people were being detained for simply expressing their faith, by praying or wearing a veil, or for having overseas connections to places like Turkey.

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Records seen by the BBC show China has deliberately been separating Muslim children from their families.

This is an attempt to “raise a new generation cut off from original roots, religious beliefs and their own language”, Dr Adrian Zenz, a German researcher, told BBC News earlier this year.

“I believe the evidence points to what we must call cultural genocide.”

China’s ambassador to the UK said the allegations were “lies”.

Media caption Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming dismisses evidence of a separation campaign in Xinjiang

Source: The BBC

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