U.S. misleads public, diverts attention through human rights issues

Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region enjoys social stability, economic development, ethnic unity, and religious harmony. Residents of all ethnic groups in the region, including the Uygurs, are living peaceful and happy lives.

The Xinjiang-related sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies have interfered in China’s internal affairs and grossly distorted basic facts about the region. Anyone who seeks truth from facts and abandons the presumption of guilt can understand the real situation in the region.

A child riding on an electric tricycle visits a bazaar in Hami City of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)

The total population of Xinjiang has continued to grow steadily. From 2010 to 2018, the number of permanent residents in Xinjiang increased by 13.99 percent. Among that number, the population of ethnic minorities increased by 22.14 percent.

The Uygur population in Xinjiang saw an increase of 25.04 percent, much higher than the 2 percent growth rate of the Han population in the region.

These figures clearly reveal how baseless the claim of "genocide" in Xinjiang is. The U.S. should reflect on its own history of genocide of native Indians, rather than pinning the “genocide” label on Xinjiang.

Xinjiang enjoys a sound development momentum. The region’s gross domestic product grew 3.4 percent year on year to about 1.38 trillion yuan (about $210 billion) in 2020. The annual per capita disposable income of urban residents stood at 34,838 yuan, up 0.5 percent from the previous year. The region also ranked first in terms of the growth rate of fixed-asset investment nationwide.

People’s livelihoods in Xinjiang have also steadily improved. Last year, 3.06 million rural residents living below China’s current poverty line shook off poverty, and 3,666 impoverished villages and 35 poverty-stricken counties were lifted out of poverty.

Furthermore, 70 percent of Xinjiang cotton is harvested by machines. Cotton farmers can order machine picking services via mobile phone applications.

All this data serves as the most convincing of evidence. Xinjiang has seen improvement in people’s livelihoods and economic development, and its people enjoy legitimate rights and share with other people in China the dignity of being Chinese.

The U.S., while touting itself as a world human rights defender, has exposed its true face in front of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it failed to guarantee the most basic rights of Americans, including the rights to life and health, let alone their dignity.

Despite having the most advanced medical technologies and the most abundant medical resources in the world, the U.S. failed to save its people. As of March 29, 2021, the U.S., home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population, accounted for more than one-fifth of the world’s confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly one-fifth of the global deaths from the disease. More than 500,000 Americans have lost their lives due to the virus.

The U.S. seems to champion the slogan of “all being equal”, but fails to give fair treatment to African Americans. The pandemic has further exposed the systemic racial discrimination in American society.

African Americans are three times as likely as whites to be infected with the coronavirus, and twice as likely to die from it. The rights of American Indians are violated and Asian Americans are being bullied, while hate crimes remain at a high level.

U.S. police officers take an oath to protect citizens’ lives and property, but at the same time, they point guns at Americans.

American police shot and killed a total of 1,127 people in 2020, with no killings reported in just 18 days of that year, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group. African Americans made up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for 28 percent of the people killed by the police. African Americans were three times as likely as white Americans to be killed by police.

The U.S., though dubbing itself “a lecturer on human rights”, turns a blind eye to the forced separation of migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to U.S. media, of the 266,000 immigrant kids who were held in custody by the U.S. government in recent years, more than 25,000 had been detained for longer than 100 days.

The U.S. claims to value human rights, but does not care about the lives of ordinary people. This is not protection of human rights, but shows that America’s intention behind smearing Xinjiang is to shift domestic attention and cover up its own serious human rights violations.

Perhaps the seemingly successful U.S. style of human rights has made the country feel morally right and serves as a strategic tool for Washington to infringe on the interests of other countries. However, in China, a people-centered concept of human rights is upheld by the Chinese people, as it better protects the fundamental interests of the largest possible number of Chinese people, and reflects the essence of human rights.

If the U.S. truly cares about human rights, it should, in line with the principle of mutual respect, deliver on its commitment and advance the global human rights cause. After all, any efforts made to protect human rights will end up being pointless if they fail to serve the people.