China tries to spin positive message to counter criticism of Xinjiang policies

China is mounting an increasingly sophisticated counter-attack to criticism of its policies in the restive, heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang, courting foreign media and running opinion pieces abroad as it seeks to spin a more positive message.

Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, scholars, foreign governments and UN rights experts over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim Uygur minority and other Muslim groups who call Xinjiang home.

The United States is even looking at sanctions on senior Chinese officials and companies linked to allegations of human rights abuses there, which would further ratchet up tension amid their blistering trade war.

China says Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists and has rejected all accusations of mistreatment in an area where hundreds have been killed in recent years in unrest between Uygurs and members of the ethnic Han majority.

Officials say they are putting some people through “vocational” style courses to rein in extremism, and have denounced hostile foreign forces for sowing misinformation.

In an opinion piece last week in The Jakarta Post entitled “Xinjiang, what a wonderful place”, China’s ambassador to Indonesia, Xiao Qian, wrote that religious rights were respected and protected there and attacks were “anti-religion in nature”.