Washington's Xinjiang-related bill a dirty political trick

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a baseless and heavily biased bill banning all imports from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region out of the familiar "forced labor" slur, joining the Senate in playing a dirty political trick to grossly interfere in China's domestic affairs.

Yet the bill, another product of Washington's sinister intention to stir up chaos in Xinjiang and undermine China's peaceful development under the cloak of human rights, will fool no clear minds.

Washington invariably resorts to its old playbook of lies whenever it wants to step up its China-bashing campaign. However, it is increasingly known that their favorite and proud accusations like "religious oppression," "forced labor" and "genocide" are a far cry from truth.

For the record, Xinjiang-related issues are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism, maintaining stability and security, and safeguarding socio-economic development in the region.

Official data show that between the 1990s and 2016, thousands of violent terrorist activities took place in Xinjiang, claiming numerous lives and causing tremendous property damage. This dire situation was beyond tolerance, prompting the Chinese government to take counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures in accordance with law. As a result, there has been no terrorist incident in Xinjiang for many years.

Facts speak for themselves. Over the past four decades, Xinjiang has achieved remarkable progress and development. The Uygur population in Xinjiang has doubled from 5.55 million to more than 12 million. From 1978 to 2020, the per capita disposable income of both urban and rural residents in the region saw an increase of over 100 times.

Xinjiang eradicated absolute poverty for the first time in its history after lifting more than 3 million residents out of poverty by the end of 2020. Over 200 million visits are made by tourists to Xinjiang each year, showing the region's growing stability and attractiveness.

Labor and employment policies enacted by local governments have effectively safeguarded the people's basic right to employment. For example, about 70 percent of cotton in Xinjiang is harvested by machine, and jobs in the industry are well paying and competitive.

In fact, these truths are no longer secrets to the larger world. Xinjiang has kept its door wide open to all who remain skeptical, but those sanctimonious politicians in the White House refused to go and take a look. A growing number of think tanks, media and scholars have been telling what is really happening on the ground, but those politicians refused to listen. To them, Xinjiang is merely a political tool for creating a mess in China, so the true story does not matter at all.

Xinjiang affairs are purely China's internal affairs, and Washington is in no position and has no right to interfere. Besides, its defamation will in no way diminish Beijing's determination to maintain stability in Xinjiang, preserve national sovereignty, and safeguard China's legitimate rights to security and development. The earlier those self-styled human rights defenders in the White House realize this, the better, as their hypocritical political circus does neither side good.

They'd better devote their time and energy to addressing so many human right abuses happening in their own backyard. If they are successful, their words and actions would be more convincing to the people of the wider world.