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BEIJING (Reuters) – Vocational training is being used "to the greatest extent" in the far west of China, in Xinjiang, to ensure that militant activities are "eliminated before it's over." they do not happen, "said a senior Communist Party official.
PHOTO FILE: A police officer checks a man's identity card as security forces monitor a street in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, on March 24, 2017. REUTERS / Thomas Peter / File Photo
The official media interview with Shohrat Zakir, the main leader of the party and Xinjiang's largest Uighur ethnic group, is the most detailed defense ever given by China to its policy in the region, which is home to a large Muslim population.
Reports of mass detentions and strict surveillance of Uighurs and other Muslims have prompted the United States to consider sanctions against officials and companies related to allegations of human rights violations.
After initially issuing general accusations, the Chinese authorities have declared in recent weeks that they do not impose arbitrary detention and political re-education in a network of secret camps. Some citizens guilty of minor offenses were sent to vocational training centers.
These measures have helped prevent the violent attacks in Xinjiang for 21 months, said Zakir in an interview published by the Xinhua News Agency.
The trainees signed "education agreements" to receive "concentrated training" and to conduct an "on-site study," Zakir said.
They attended classes in Chinese and lectures on the constitution and laws of the country, he added, without specifying the number of people benefiting from this training. Vocational training included food processing, electronics assembly, hairdressing, clothing manufacturing and e-commerce.
"Thanks to the professional training, most trainees were able to reflect on their mistakes and clearly see the essence and misdeeds of terrorism and religious extremism," Zakir said.
"They were also able to better distinguish the true from the fake and withstand the infiltration of extremist thinking," he said.
Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and UN human rights experts against what they describe. as massive detentions and strict surveillance of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority and other Muslim groups living in Xinjiang.
Human rights groups and former detainees said the living conditions in the camps were poor and the detainees were subjected to psychological and physical abuse. They stated that the inmates did not receive any vocational training.
In response, Beijing launched a sophisticated counter-attack against critics of its Xinjiang policy, courting foreign media and spreading opinions abroad, with the aim of conveying a more positive message.
China says Xinjiang is threatened by militant Islamists and separatists. He rejects all the accusations of ill-treatment in an area where hundreds of people have been killed in unrest between Uyghurs and members of the Han Chinese majority.
The interview with Zakir comes a week after Xinjiang introduced in its anti-extremism regulations new clauses that prescribe the use of "vocational training centers" to "educate and transform" people influenced by # 39; extremism.
James Leibold, Xinjiang's expert at Melbourne's La Trobe University, said China is increasingly seeking to divert international criticism by attempting to retrospectively justify mass detention camps.
"International critics are clearly biting and China has decided to make itself known," he said.
Report by Philip Wen and Christian Shepherd; edited by Darren Schuettler
