By People’s Daily
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019” on December 3 local time, maliciously attacking the human rights in Xinjiang, slandering China’s de-radicalization and anti-terrorism efforts, making groundless accusations against the Chinese government’s Xinjiang policies and grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs.
The hypocrisy and hegemony of the U.S. have been exposed and whatever ulterior motives it has against China are doomed to fail.
As is already known, human rights have a wide range of varieties, among which the rights to live and development are the basic ones as well as the prerequisite and foundation for protecting the other rights of individuals and collectives.
Without a safe and stable social environment, human beings’ rights to live and development wouldn’t be guaranteed, let alone other kinds of rights.
For a long time, terrorist attacks have not only damaged people’s lives and property, but have caused great panic among the society, spoiled the social environment, hindered economic development and progress, and seriously endangered people’s rights to live and development.
Until today, terrorism and religious extremism are still raging around the world as a malignant tumor of the human society.
Xinjiang is a major battlefield for China to fight against terrorism and extremism. From the 1990s to the beginning of the 21st, terrorist attacks had struck Xinjiang frequently, greatly endangering the lives, property, and basic human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
Under such circumstances, Xinjiang has taken measures to strike at terrorism and extremism, including carrying out vocational education and training, which accords with Chinese laws and regulations as well as the preventive counter-terrorism approach of the United Nations (UN).
These measures turned out to be effective and were welcomed and supported by people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
By now, the local security situation has improved markedly and religious extremism has been effectively curbed. With the basic rights well protected, people from different ethnic groups and religions could live in harmony and peace and gradually form a better atmosphere in the society in pursuit of modern scientific and technological knowledge and civilization.
For three years in a row, no violent or terrorist activities have occurred in Xinjiang.
Regrettably, however, the U.S. has not only turned a blind eye to Xinjiang’s efforts to fight terrorism and protect human rights in accordance with the law, turned a blind eye to Xinjiang’s economic growth, social stability, ethnic solidarity, and harmony among religions, but also opted to fabricate facts and smear China’s efforts in counter-terrorism and de-radicalization.
This is a typical double standard on counter-terrorism and exposes the U.S. hypocrisy on human rights issues.
In fact, the U.S. has always applied international law in a selective way as regards counter-terrorism to maintain its hegemony in the world.
Under the guise of human rights and anti-terrorism, it has waged wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and other places, causing millions of casualties and a large number of displaced people.
However, the country dares to criticize China for carrying out vocational education and training in Xinjiang to fight extremism. It doesn’t make sense, not by any means.
Such unreasonable double standard of the U.S. will only arouse indignation among the advocates for justice and conscience in the world.
Facts speak louder than words, and the truth will prevail in the end. While condemning the U.S. for its hegemonic and hypocritical behavior, the international community has recognized China’s achievements of anti-terrorism, de-radicalization and social governance in Xinjiang.
Vocational education and training centers are established and run in Xinjiang with the aim to prevent the breeding and spread of terrorism and religious extremism and effectively curb frequent terrorist incidents and protecting the rights to life, health, and development of the people of all ethnic groups.
Many people from all over the world have visited Xinjiang and become aware that it is urgent, necessary, legitimate and reasonable to carry out vocational education and training in Xinjiang.
They believe that the vocational education and training centers have saved the participants from being manipulated by terrorism and religious extremism and contributed to the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization cause in the international society.
Terrorism and religious extremism are still the common challenges facing humanity and many countries are actively exploring solutions based on their actual conditions.
The U.S. has used the so-called human rights issue to smear and attack China’s anti-terrorism efforts in Xinjiang, which is disdained by the international community.
It should immediately abandon the double standard on counter-terrorism and de-radicalization, stop fabricating the so-called “human rights issue” in Xinjiang, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs with the Xinjiang-related bill.
