China refutes US report on Xinjiang-related issues

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday that the issues related to Xinjiang are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about fighting terrorism and separatism, and the Chinese government's counterterrorism and deradicalization measures have substantially turned the security situation around in Xinjiang.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a U.S. report related to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.

Wang said the U.S. report distorts and smears the human rights conditions in Xinjiang and wantonly attacks China's Xinjiang policy, tramples on international law and basic norms in international relations and lacks factual basis.

"It is nothing more than a repetition of U.S. lies on Xinjiang-related issues," Wang said, adding that thanks to these measures, there have been zero violent terrorist incidents in Xinjiang over the past five years.

He said for quite some time, the United States has been propagating and playing up lies about Xinjiang and using them as the basis to engage in a massive campaign to smear, sanction and suppress China.

Just weeks ago, the United States put the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into effect despite China's strong opposition in an attempt to engender forced unemployment in Xinjiang and make it return to poverty, Wang said.

Now by issuing the so-called report and strategy, Wang said Washington is continuing to unscrupulously discredit and attack China. "This is another example of the United States undermining human rights, rules and the rule of law in the name of exercising them. The intent to destabilize Xinjiang and use Xinjiang to contain China is all too clear."

He said China will do everything necessary to defend its sovereignty, security and development interests, and Washington will not succeed in its attempts to propagate lies about Xinjiang and use Xinjiang-related issues to interfere in China's internal affairs.

"Blind to its own human rights record but obsessed with lying about and attacking other countries -- the United States is acting like a mafia boss and the world knows it," Wang said.