China has been aggressively defending its Xinjiang policies in the face of rising global criticism. Photo: AFP

Xinjiang ‘internment camps’: research institute got it wrong, official says

343 of 380 buildings named by Canberra-based Xinjiang Data Project as detention centres were schools, government buildings, hospitals, residential blocks or shops, Xinjiang government spokesman says
So-called Xinjiang-related databases are funded and run by anti-China organisations and forces, including the US, he says

Published: 9:00pm, 9 Apr 2021

Ninety per cent of the buildings in Xinjiang identified by a Canberra-based research institute as internment facilities were incorrectly labelled, authorities said on Friday as China continues to fight back against international criticism of its policies in the region.

Of the 380 structures described as internment facilities by the Xinjiang Data Project – a database run by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute – 343 were schools, government buildings, hospitals, residential blocks or shops, Xinjiang government spokesman Xu Guixiang told a press conference in Beijing.

He did not say what the 37 other buildings were.

China warns Japan to not follow suit after US sanctions over Xinjiang, Hong Kong

Xu also said that the Xinjiang Data Project was one of three databases – along with the Xinjiang Victims Database and the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database – that had been set up by groups opposed to Beijing and which received funding from Western governments, including the United States.

“These so-called Xinjiang-related databases are all founded by anti-China organisations, personnel or ‘East Turkestan’ elements, and backed by United States and Western anti-China forces,” he said.

Xu said also that of the 12,050 Xinjiang residents whose details were contained on the three databases, 6,962 were “living normally in society”, 3,244 were serving prison sentences, 1,342 had never existed, 264 lived outside mainland China and 238 had died.

The tone of the press conference was in line with Beijing’s increasingly aggressive defence of its Xinjiang policies after some Western governments described its treatment of Uygurs in the region as genocide.

The European Union, US, Canada and Britain have all imposed sanctions on China in relation to Xinjiang, while Beijing has hit back with restrictions on foreign government bodies, politicians, scholars and institutes.

Xu also challenged the personal accounts of Uygurs – including Tursunay Ziyawudun – of their experiences in the region after they had escaped from Xinjiang.

In a February report by the BBC, Tursunay said that during her nine-month detention in a re-education camp in Xinjiang she was raped and saw other women raped. Xu, however, pointed to the fact that in a Buzzfeed article published last year, Tursunay said she was not beaten or abused.

But Tursunay, who now lives in the US, said that she did not mention the sexual abuse in the Buzzfeed interview as she was living in Kazakhstan at the time and feared she would be sent back to Xinjiang.

Xu and other Xinjiang officials said they also could not find any medical evidence to support Tursunay’s claim that she had been sterilised against her will.

China accuses US of double standards as it drops ETIM from terrorism list

They also rebuffed claims made by Sairagul Sauytbay – who was last year awarded an International Women of Courage Award by the US State Department – that she worked at several reeducation facilities in Xinjiang.

When asked by a reporter why terrorism-related cases in Xinjiang were never made public, thus making it difficult for the media to verify them, Xu said it was because of the “nature of certain cases” and that they might be related to other unsolved cases.

Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing, said that defending its Xinjiang policies was now one of China’s top political priorities.

“It’s related to the fundamental image of the Communist Party and the Chinese government, its internal stability and security,” he said.

“The fundamental differences over the issue will remain not only in the short term but for the foreseeable future … [and] will continue to poison China’s ties with the outside world.”

International pressure against China over its Xinjiang policies has gained traction in recent months, including calls for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics Games next year.

For its part, China has accused the US of being behind the upset in the region. Last month, Chinese state media and the foreign ministry referred to a speech given by a retired American army colonel in 2018 in an attempt to unravel an alleged conspiracy by the United States behind the Xinjiang cotton row.

During his trip to Xinjiang in March, China’s police chief Zhao Kezhi warned the US against attempts to use the region to contain China, underlining how the issue is increasingly seen through the geopolitical lens by the Chinese government.

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