Chinese president Xi Jinping during a rare trip to Xinjiang on Saturday doubled down on “maintaining social stability” in the region and highlighted the need for the deepening of the “Sinofication of Islam” to “effectively handle all sorts of religious activities,” a year after the United Nations found Beijing responsible for “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” in the province.
“[We] have to combine the anti-terrorism and anti-secessionist struggle with the legalized and regularized efforts for stability maintenance,” Xi said during a stopover on his way back from the BRICS summit in South Africa, reports Politico. “The Sinofication of Islam should be deepened in order to effectively handle all sorts of illegal religious activities.”
It was Xi’s first visit to Xinjiang since July 2022.
A UN report published last year found “allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”
The extent of the detentions against Uyghur and others in content of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” added the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Xi in his speech stressed the need for “more positive propaganda to show an open, confident Xinjiang,” according to state media CCTV. “Targeted efforts should be made to rebut any inaccurate and negative press.”
It said Xi also urged officials to “enhance our awareness of adversities… and consolidate our hard-won social stability.”
Some foreign lawmakers and parliaments, as well as the U.S. secretaries of state in both the Biden and Trump administrations, have labeled the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide.
But China vehemently denies that.
Xi said China will continue to teach Uyghurs the standard Chinese language and reallocate them for work outside the region.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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