Why the West flogs the dead horse of Uygur suppression again

Editor's note: Sultan M Hali is a Pakistani writer and security analyst. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

China's meteoric economic rise has been viewed with awe and envy by the West. Instead of competing with its prudent pecuniary progress, following the "Tall Poppy Syndrome," the West finds it opportune to drown Chinese fiscal prowess in a deluge of false accusations.

China's soft underbelly has been the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which was once inhabited by the relatively impoverished Uygurs, having missed out the opulence prevailing in the eastern provinces. Some of these Uygurs were exploited and manipulated by China's detractors in the name of demanding their rights.

In order to achieve that, Islamic tenets were distorted and an unreal, gruesome image of exploitation by the Chinese government was then presented. Some gullible Uygurs fell victim to the propaganda and indulged in acts of terrorism. Since 2009, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China has seen a wave of unprecedented reforms to bring the Uygurs into the mainstream.

For a while, this propaganda campaign against China seemed to be dying down. However, with the prevailing Sino-US trade wars, this dead horse of Uygur suppression is being flogged again. This time the campaign is so severe that the US House of Representatives passed the Uygur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 recently.

It is a harsh piece of legislation, which deliberately smears the human rights condition in Xinjiang, slanders China's efforts in de-radicalization and counter-terrorism and viciously attacks the Chinese government's Xinjiang policy.

The UN and EU also jumped into the fray. Despite the Chinese government taking timely actions issuing a White Paper and adopting policies to ensure that the Uygurs enjoy the fruits of China's progress and development, the false accusations still continued.

I have been a regular visitor to China, especially Xinjiang since 1974 and I'm a witness to the development and progress of China's western province and have noted with satisfaction that no terrorist attacks have taken place there in the near past.

The tirade of propaganda against China continues with renewed vigor despite the efforts of the Chinese government to allay all doubts regarding the accusations against so-called 'Uygur suppression.' The fresh propaganda campaign is using international media and social media to sow doubts about China's treatment of Muslims.

The ploy now being used is causing the fake Uygur sympathizers to raise concerns regarding the alleged missing persons. Even human rights activists have picked up the cudgel to campaign on behalf of these alleged oppressed Uygurs. People assumed to be missing are being surreptitiously mentioned in notices posted on social media by Uygur secessionists to rally public opinion to their cause.

Interestingly, some of the missing persons being posted are actually criminals, who were convicted for acts of terrorism against the state. Numerous others on their "missing" posts are suspects under investigation. The Chinese government has provided evidence of the "missing persons" being participants in the vocational training centers for reeducation.

My recent visits to Xinjiang have depicted the situation of the Uygurs, which is far from the dreary picture being posted by the protagonists inimical to China's development. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has brought progress to the region where the Uygurs of Xinjiang are the biggest beneficiaries.

Having received technical training to participate in the mega project, the Uygurs are not only occupying important managerial and technical positions but also enjoying better lives. The government's efforts to improve the region's infrastructure and raise people's living standards have reached fruition.

Xinjiang lifted over 2.3 million people above the poverty line between 2014 to 2018, and nearly 1.9 million of them were from the southern part of the region. In a bid to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020, Xinjiang will continue to speed up infrastructure construction in poverty-stricken villages.

The renewed efforts by the US to run a smear campaign against China may have picked up momentum in the West. But the Chinese government has taken the wise step of inviting foreign scholars and diplomats to visit Xinjiang and see the truth by themselves.

This July, Ambassadors of 37 countries from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America signed a joint-letter to the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council to praise China's "contribution to the international human rights cause."

Prominent members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia also voiced for China, saying that China had faced terrorism, separatism and religious extremism in Xinjiang, a vast northwest region which is mainly inhabited by Muslims. Nonetheless, with counterterrorism measures and vocational training, China has restored peace and security there.

However, to counter Western propaganda against China, the saner elements in the Islamic world must contribute more prevailing voices to let the world see the truth about China out of the perverted prism of the West.