BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China strongly opposes national separatism and any violent act of terrorism, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said at a Friday press briefing.
Spokeswoman Hua Chunying's remarks came after Reporters Without Borders, a non-governmental organization based in France, condemned the control of news and information by the Chinese government in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Sixteen knife-wielding religious extremists killed 24 people last week in Shanshan County, Turpan Prefecture. Local police shot and killed 11 of the attackers and apprehended the other five.
The violence "makes people's hair stand on end," Hua said.
"If one not only refuses to denounce or fight the atrocities, but instead takes a skeptical attitude toward the legal disposal by the Chinese government, or even makes carping comments on China's national and religious policy, then it only shows their double standards and a seriously biased view against China," she said.
Hua said the Chinese government's ethnic and religious policy in Xinjiang is consistent with China's national conditions and the actual situation in Xinjiang, and it has won support from all ethnic groups there.
A small group of people's scheme to divide Xinjiang and undermine the stability and development of Xinjiang goes against people's will and is doomed to fail, she noted.
"We hope that relevant sides and media could forsake the political bias, recognize China's national and religious policy in a comprehensive, objective and appropriate way, see clearly the nature and danger of violent terrorism, understand and support the government's position and concerns as well as what China has to do to safeguard national unity and social stability in Xinjiang and to protect people's safety and property," said the spokeswoman.
It has been four years since a premeditated terrorist plot incited violent killings, beatings, looting and arson in Urumqi on July 5, 2009. At least 156 lives were lost and more than 1,000 people were injured in the regional capital in those riots.
Hua said that Beijing had "a very clear definition" of the 2009 events.
"It was an organized, serious and violent crime involving robbery, arson and vandalism, which was plotted by separatists in and outside of China and carried out by separatists in China," she added.
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