Officials and scholars from China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Monday countered accusations by U.K. politicians and journalists against China on Xinjiang-related issues.
Xu Guixiang, spokesperson for the People's Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said at a press conference that some U.K. politicians and journalists have been rattling on about "human rights violations in China," calling counterterrorism, deradicalization and solidarity efforts in China's Xinjiang "genocide" and "forced labor."
"The misleading reports and wanton accusations they have made over Xinjiang-related issues are counter to the facts and completely politically motivated," Xu said.
He remarked that politicians in the U.K. are turning a deaf ear to the development and progress of human rights in Xinjiang. Instead, Xu added that these self-styled "human rights judges" who are keen to lecture others should stop pointing fingers at China's affairs and instead examine their own ignoble record on human rights.
He said that the U.K. has a long history of involvement in the slave trade. Between 1640 and 1807, Britain was the most dominant country in terms of the slave-trading industry, with estimates showing that around 3 million African people were transported to British colonies. Numerous enslaved Africans died during the brutal maritime transport, while those who survived were forced to work in plantations where they were cruelly treated by the local colonists.
Even in modern times, the dark past of threats, violence and coercion to exploit people for labor still looms large, Xu said. According to a report by British newspaper The Sun in 2019, there were as many as 136,000 people in the U.K. living in modern slavery, trapped in forced labor and sexual exploitation. Even earlier, a 2015 report in the Guardian said that around 3,000 Vietnamese children in the U.K. were in forced labor and being used for profit by criminal gangs.
Mahmut Abduwali, an associate researcher with the Institute of History at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said that the U.K.'s history is witness to systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide against Australian Tasmanians, the Maori in New Zealand, American Indians and Indians, with racism still persisting in British society.
"With such a record of human rights violations, what right does the U.K. have to make irresponsible remarks about other countries' human rights issues, and point fingers at issues related to China's Xinjiang?" he asked.
Ramila Shawkat, associate professor at the School of Marxism of Xinjiang University, pointed out that Muslims in the U.K. suffer from great hatred, making it harder for them to secure their basic political, economic and cultural rights. Muslim groups in the U.K. have also been the target of hate crimes. The Guardian reported in 2017 that there had been a 26% increase in reports of Islamophobic hate crime compared with the previous year, marking the highest number since records began.
"Why do Muslims in the U.K. have to live in hatred? U.K. politicians should face up to their own problems at home and stop meddling in Xinjiang-related issues," she said.
Xu Guixiang also denounced the BBC's false reports which spread rumors and lies about vocational education and training in Xinjiang. He said that the facts told us that the establishment of vocational education and training centers was a key measure to effectively crack down on terrorism and religious extremism, helping to create jobs for locals and enable them to live happy lives.
"These anti-China forces don't really care about the lives of people in Xinjiang," Xu said. "In fact, they are trying to disrupt the overall stability of Xinjiang under the guise of human rights by imposing sanctions on local industrial development and dragging Xinjiang back to a time when terrorist activity was a frequent occurrence. In the end, that would gravely undermine the basic rights and interests of its people."
