West's ideological obsession behind its lies about Xinjiang

A worker lays freshly-made naan at a naan bakery in Akto county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Dec. 25, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

In Exploration and Inquiry: a Documentary on Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang broadcast by the Arabic channel of China Global Television Network on Monday, the camera leads viewers to different parts of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. What the video shows is a far cry from the Xinjiang that some Western media and China-bashers in the West are trying to portray.

The scenes of Muslims observing the Corban Festival and different ethnic groups living together peacefully flies in the face of the nasty smears such as "genocide", "lack of religious freedom", "demolition of mosques", "persecution of religious leaders" and so on, and gives substance to the fact that there has not been a single terrorist attack in the five years since 2016, while previously there were hundreds a year.

Thanks to the region's peace and stability, the number of tourist trips made to Xinjiang has been on the increase in recent years. The figure was 158 million in 2020, which is a slap in the face of those trying to pin human rights abuses on the region.

The question is, why such lies are told about China's Xinjiang by the West.

It is because, with their ideological bias, they choose to believe what the Xinjiang secessionists tell them, even those who are elements of the so-called Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, which was the mastermind of most of the terrorist attacks in Xinjiang and recognized by the United Nations as a terrorist organization.

Those who have launched attacks in whatever form against the United States and European countries as well as their citizens are labeled as terrorists, but those who have done the same to China and its people are hailed as "freedom fighters".

While the US has launched wars and even invaded countries in the name of fighting against terrorism, China's peaceful deradicalization efforts are decried as "human rights abuses". It would be laughable if the US' use of force hadn't caused so many deaths and so much suffering.

Behind such illogical thinking is the animosity that those people have nurtured against China. "Genocide", "lack of religious freedom", "persecution of religious figures", "forced labor" and other allegations of human rights abuses are merely what they imagine the Chinese government has done and is doing.

They hope that by supporting the Xinjiang separatists they will be able to promote a "color revolution" in Xinjiang. They must feel despair that this has not materialized.

Presumably, it is because China's efforts in cracking down on terrorism, extremism and separatism in Xinjiang has been so successful that they feel it necessary to make up stories about the region.

However, they need to be reminded that the lies they are telling about Xinjiang only expose the degree of stupidity their ideological obsession has led them to.

Looking at Xinjiang objectively would give them a reality check.