Washington's Xinjiang scheme costly for global anti-terror drive

Terrorism and extremism are mankind's common adversaries. Yet Washington, by smearing China's anti-terror commitments and achievements in Xinjiang, is sending a dangerously wrong message.

In the name of protecting human rights in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the US House of Representatives passed a Xinjiang-related bill on Tuesday -- Washington's latest flagrant interference in China's internal affairs.

For China, Xinjiang is a major battlefield in its counter-terrorism endeavors. According to a white paper issued in August by China's State Council Information Office, from 1990 to the end of 2016, separatists, religious extremists and terrorists carried out several thousand acts of terrorism such as bombings, assassinations, poisoning and arson attacks in Xinjiang, claiming numerous innocent civilian lives and killing hundreds of police officers.

To turn around such a drastic situation, Xinjiang has adopted a series of resolute and effective counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures in accordance with the law and aspirations of the locals.

Xinjiang's vocational education and training centers, which provide those swayed by terrorist and religious extremist teachings with education in standard Chinese, an understanding of the law, and skill training, aim at nipping elements of terrorism and extremism in the bud.

That practice conforms to the basic principles of global anti-terror efforts and the spirit of such United Nations (UN) documents as the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism.

Ironically, many of the US lawmakers who sponsored and voted for the bill have never been to Xinjiang, or even China. Yet they behave as if they knew more about the human rights situation in Xinjiang than anyone else.

Moreover, while slinging mud at China and its Xinjiang policy, Washington is also creating human rights disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and many other parts of the world. Such double-faced behavior has once again put on full display those US meddlers' hypocrisy and ulterior motive.

China will always remain committed to eliminating terrorism, protecting security and promoting stability in Xinjiang. It will also stay determined to safeguard its national sovereignty and legitimate rights to develop and prosper. Washington's political farce will never change Beijing's mind.

As for those interfering politicians in Washington, getting tough on China on TV and Facebook pages may serve their own political self-interests in an expedient fashion. Yet such a way of trying to score cheap political points is very likely to embolden those very terrorists who are hiding in dark corners, watching and planning to attack.

That is too high a price to pay for the world's collective campaign to defeat terrorism.