Window offered to see real Xinjiang

Many Japanese said they got to know the real Xinjiang "in an all-around and vivid" way after attending a webinar introducing the northwestern region of China on Friday.

The online event-"Xinjiang is a Wonderful Land"－was co-hosted by the government of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the Chinese embassy in Japan, during which government officials, imams of mosques, cotton farmers and graduated trainees from local vocational training centers were invited to share their personal stories with people from all walks of life in Japan, including lawmakers, journalists and scholars.

Nakano Akira, senior director of Japan-China Cultural Exchange Association in Tokyo who has been to Xinjiang for several times, said the webinar helped Japanese society distinguish truth from lies.

"Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times," said Nakano, adding the mass media coverage about Xinjiang in Japan is not based on solid facts but with a special agenda following Western narratives.

"Media reports focused a lot on 'forced labor' and 'human rights' but barely mentioned anti-terrorism efforts made by the government and the webinar finally told a whole story about this," he added.

Invitation sent out

In response, Shawkat Imin, director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said all people are welcomed to Xinjiang to find their own version of the reality as long as they are not biased.

"The Western allegations that accused China of repressing Muslim residents in Xinjiang including using so-called forced labor, forced sterilization and concentration camps are totally nonsense and absolute lies," said Imin. "Those who spread the rumors are only interested in creating the 'Xinjiang issue' to undermine the security and stability in Xinjiang and hold back China's development."

At the event, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Kong Xuanyou said rumors about Xinjiang also aroused doubts among the Japanese people, and made the Chinese people and Japanese friends who know about the truth feel indignant.

"Facts speak louder than words and rumors stop with the wise," he said. "Over 1,200 diplomats, officials of international organizations, journalists, and religious figures from more than 100 countries have visited Xinjiang so far. They have learned the real situation in Xinjiang, what they saw and heard there were completely different from those fake reports."

Echoing Kong, Tadayoshi Murata, a professor emeritus from Japan's Yokohama National University who also attended the webinar, said claims of "genocide" by some media is not a valid argument because the figures listed are vague in details and failed to offer solid reference.

"From my study, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has been growing steadily and the growth rate is comparatively high which proves that the genocide claim is a fabrication," Murata said.