China slams Australian broadcaster over Xinjiang report as universities investigate claims
- Two Australian universities say they will review ties to Chinese tech companies implicated in rights abuses in the semi-autonomous region
- The Chinese embassy in Australia has pushed back against the ABC’s Four Corners programme, saying it misled audiences with ‘absurd logic’
The embassy on Tuesday said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had misled audiences with “absurd logic” in an episode of investigative news programme Four Corners that spoke with Australian Uygurs with family detained in Xinjiang, detailed links between Australian institutions and the region’s surveillance apparatus, and outlined new evidence of Uygurs being forced into factory work.
The episode, which aired on Monday, interviewed Australian Uygurs who described family members being funnelled from detention camps into forced labour at textile factories, and revealed that retailers in Australia including Target, Cotton On, Ikea and H&M had sourced cotton in Xinjiang.
It also revealed the University of Technology Sydney had launched a review of a A$10 million (US$7 million) partnership with CETC, the developer of an app used to track the ethnic Muslim minority, while Perth-based Curtin University was re-examining research procedures after an associate professor was found to have helped develop artificial intelligence to better identify Chinese ethnic minorities.
It is obvious that the producers and reporters of this programme are … utterly cold-blooded on the well-being of the people in Xinjiang
United Nations experts and human rights activists say at least 1 million Uygurs and other Muslims are being held in detention camps in Xinjiang, while China describes them as training centres used to help stamp out extremism and teach people new skills.
“It is obvious that the producers and reporters of this programme are utterly ignorant of China, utterly disrespect the rule of law, [and are] utterly cold-blooded on the well-being of the people in Xinjiang,” a spokesperson said in a statement posted on the Chinese embassy’s website. “It is an extremely unprofessional and unethical production, nothing but despicable and deplorable.”
“Counterterrorism and deradicalisation measures” introduced by authorities had the “wholehearted support and applause of the Chinese people” and had ensured against terrorist attacks, the statement said.
Beijing has rendered Xinjiang as barren as a moonscape