BISHKEK (TCA) — The head of the government of China’s Xinjiang, at a press conference in Beijing on December 9, said the region is determined in counter-terrorism, deradicalization and maintaining development, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Not any force can stop Xinjiang from moving towards stability, development and prosperity,” said Shohrat Zakir, chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China. “The unity of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and their endeavors to strive forward cannot be deterred either.”
No terrorist incidents have occurred in Xinjiang in three years, where social public security has improved significantly, Shohrat Zakir said.
He said the counter-terrorism and deradicalization efforts made by the region in recent years have laid a solid foundation for the social stability and enduring peace in Xinjiang.
In 2017, Xinjiang’s GDP reached 1 trillion yuan (around 142 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time, while the number in the first three quarters this year rose by 6.1 percent year on year, and the region received over 200 million tourists from January to October, said Erkin Tuniyaz, vice chairman of Xinjiang.
Shohrat Zakir also slammed the passing of the “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019” by the U.S. House of Representatives, saying that it seriously violated international law and the basic norms governing international relations and grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs.
Speaking about the education and training programs in Xinjiang, Shohrat Zakir said trainees have all graduated after participating in education and training programs of standard spoken and written Chinese, understanding of the law, vocational skills and deradicalization at vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang.
The US House of Representatives on December 3 approved the “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019” that would require the Trump administration to impose sanctions on senior Chinese officials over allegations of mistreatment of China’s Uighur ethnic minority.
In late August 2018, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination documented large numbers of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities detained in political “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, often for long periods without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism.
Beijing authorities insist that the enormous detention camps are vocational education and training centers for Uighurs to learn language and law, as well as gain professional skills. The camps are also claimed by Beijing to strengthen resistance to extremism and terrorism.
