Australian researcher hits back at Chinese tabloid over Xinjiang report

ASPI analyst says Global Times’ attempt to debunk report on the far western region amounts to ‘lies’

ASPI has mapped more than 380 suspected detention facilities in Xinjiang that it says have been built or expanded since 2017

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The ASPI identified and mapped more than 380 suspected detention facilities in Xinjiang that have been built or expanded since 2017. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:44pm, 30 Nov 2020Updated: 7:55am, 1 Dec 2020

A researcher for an Australian think tank has described as “straight-up lies” a Chinese tabloid’s attempt to debunk a study by the institute on facilities in the far western region of Xinjiang.

Nathan Ruser, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), was responding to a report in Global Times on a briefing by Xinjiang authorities on Friday.

During the briefing, a Xinjiang government spokesman said think tanks such as ASPI were anti-China tools manipulated by the US government.

The spokesman sought to counter a report in September in which the ASPI identified and mapped more than 380 suspected detention facilities in Xinjiang that have been built or expanded since 2017.

Watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly members of Muslim ethnic minority groups are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. Photo: AFP

The government issued “debunks” of four of the locations, claiming they were civil institutions such as schools, a logistics park and an elderly care centre.