Xi: Levels of Happiness in Xinjiang Rising

Date: 27 September 2020 - 22:14

News ID: ۸۳۲۶۵

SHANGHAI (Dispatches) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said levels of happiness among all ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang are rising and that China plans to keep teaching its residents a "correct” outlook on China, Xinhua news agency reported late on Saturday.
China has come under scrutiny over its treatment of Uighur Muslims and Western claims of alleged forced-labor abuses in Xinjiang, where one million Muslims are claimed to be held in camps.
China has repeatedly denied mistreating Uighurs and says the camps are vocational training centers that are needed to tackle extremism, accusing what it calls anti-China forces of smearing its Xinjiang policy.
"The sense of gain, happiness, and security among the people of all ethnic groups (in Xinjiang) has continued to increase,” Xi told a ruling Communist Party conference on Xinjiang held on Friday and Saturday, Xinhua said.
Xi said it was necessary to educate Xinjiang’s population on an understanding of the Chinese nation and guide "all ethnic groups on establishing a correct perspective on the country, history and nationality”.
"Practice has shown that the party’s strategy for governing Xinjiang in the new era is completely correct” and it should be a long-term approach, he added.
In July, Washington imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses against Uighurs, banning U.S. travel and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.
China’s foreign ministry on Friday denied claims from an Australian think-tank that it had destroyed thousands of mosques in its western Xinjiang region, and said there are over 24,000 mosques there, "more mosques per capita than many Muslim countries.”
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) had released a report on Thursday which estimated that about 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang have been destroyed or damaged as a result of government policies, mostly since 2017.
The estimates, it claimed, were made using satellite imagery and based on a sample of 900 religious sites prior to 2017, including mosques, shrines and sacred sites.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called it "nothing but slanderous rumors” during a press conference on Friday, and said the ASPI had received foreign funds to "support its concoction of lies against China.”
"If we look at the numbers, there are more than 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, which is over ten times more than in the U.S.,” said Wang.
"It means there is a mosque for every 530 Muslims in Xinjiang, which is more mosques per capita than many Muslim countries.”