China Calls UN Data On 1Mln Uyghurs Being Held In 'Re-Education Camps' Fabricated

The United Nations' data about an estimated million Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group, being held in the so-called re-education camps in the Chinese northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is fabricated and is aimed at "vilifying" the Chinese government, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui said on Monday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2019) The United Nations' data about an estimated million Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group, being held in the so-called re-education camps in the Chinese northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is fabricated and is aimed at "vilifying" the Chinese government, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui said on Monday.

"For some time already, certain people have been campaigning to vilify the Chinese government and its policies in Xinjiang, they call vocational educational centers created there concentration centers for Uyghurs. They even fabricated some figures, claiming that up to 1 million people have been detained in XUAR, and this is absolute nonsense," Zhang told a briefing.

According to the diplomat, those who make such allegations and accusations just refuse to see China's development.

The Uyghurs tried to seek independence from China between 1930-40s. In recent years, the Chinese government introduced stricter security measures in the region, justifying their actions by the fight against extremism.

Last year, UN experts on the elimination of racial discrimination said in a report that up to 1 million ethnic Uyghurs could be held in the "re-education" camps.

Beijing has denied the existence of such camps on numerous occasions, saying that the claims had never been substantiated and arguing that the facilities were, in fact, vocational colleges set up as part of counterterrorist efforts in the region.