Dynamite News US State Dept's webpage on Xinjiang 'full of lies': China
China has claimed that the webpage of US State Department highlighting the human rights abuses of Uyghurs by the Chinese government is "full of lies and rumours".
Beijing: China has claimed that the webpage of US State Department highlighting the human rights abuses of Uyghurs by the Chinese government is "full of lies and rumours".
Beijing on Monday asserted "the US only intends to contain China" and "destabilise Xinjiang under the pretext of human rights".
"The US Department of State's webpage on Xinjiang is full of lies and rumours. Over the past four decades, the Uyghur population in Xinjiang grew from 5.55 million to over 12 million, registering a more than 100 per cent increase," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.
Also Read | 'I don't think about it now,' says Trump on phase-2 trade talks with Beijing
He added that the US State Department "is stigmatising the human rights situation in Xinjiang" and are "pinning labels of "forced sterilisation", "repression of religious freedom" and "forced labour".
Wang argued that there are about 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, which is "more than 10 times of that in the US". "There is one mosque for every 530 Muslims in Xinjiang, which is higher than that of many Muslim countries," he claimed.
The spokesperson accused the US of "not caring" about the human rights situation in Xinjiang but "containing China's development under the pretext of human rights". China has been criticised globally for cracking down on the Uyghurs by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities, and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
Also Read | US: China must stop 'dangerous' reports about American diplomat in HK
In another crackdown on China, the US on Monday banned cotton, hair products, computer components and some textiles from Xinjiang province, which are made "using forced labour"