US bill on Xinjiang sabotages fight against terrorism and extremism: Editorial

The Uygur Act of 2019 passed by the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday is not just a vicious misrepresentation of China's legitimate de-extremist endeavors, it is gross interference in its domestic affairs, and a naked attempt to disrupt China's national rejuvenation.

Passed with a 407 to 1 vote, the so-called Uygur Intervention and Global Humanitarian Unified Response Act of 2019 links the China-US relationship to the alleged "mass internment" of Uygurs in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and seeks to punish Chinese institutions and officials the US assumes responsible.

As the Chinese Foreign Ministry said when expressing China's strong indignation and resolute opposition to move, the bill is intended as a "malicious assault on the Chinese government's governance of Xinjiang", and is the latest manifestation of the US attempts to interfere in China's internal affairs, as it seeks to put "maximum pressure" on the country, which it regards as a threat to the hegemonic privileges it has become accustomed to.

China's de-extremism policies in Xinjiang are not about human rights, ethnicity, or religion — Washington's habitual calling cards when it is up to no good in another country — but about the fight against violence, terror, and separatism.

Those on Capitol Hill who approved the bill have obviously ignored the white paper Beijing issued clarifying its anti-extremism initiatives in Xinjiang, which include the education centers the US has being trying to misrepresent as internment camps.

More than 1,000 international officials, representatives of international organizations, media outlets, religious institutions and scholars have accepted China's invitation to visit Xinjiang and see for themselves the situation in the region, and they have overwhelmingly praised the de-extremist program, and recommended it as worth being emulated.

But then as the bill states, it is not really about countering what it alleges is China's mass arbitrary detention of "Turkic Muslims", but for "other purposes". Purposes left as unspecified. For as usual, the US is sugarcoating its otherwise unpalatable intentions as support for human rights.

Like the Hong Kong Act, the Xinjiang bill making its way through the US Congress is maliciously intended. The long-arm troublemaking of the US reveals not only its dirty hands, but also a hypocritical face of friendship masking its sinister motives.

When the Hong Kong Act was signed into law, Beijing responded by announcing sanctions on the US. It seems an odds-on bet that more can be expected if the latest approval for State Department meddling goes into the statute books. Especially since this is a stab in the back, given Beijing's efforts to stabilize the already turbulent China-US relationship.

This bill and the Hong Kong Act send the explicit message that US is officially extending frictions beyond trade into the broader, if not overall, relationship, adding to the chill that has already permeated their ties.