Commentary: Smear campaign against Xinjiang reveals dark nature of U.S. hegemony

URUMQI, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The saber-rattling in a recent U.S. report to boost pressure on China over so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang is a renewed effort of Uncle Sam to leverage its hegemony and defame the northwestern Chinese autonomous region.

First and foremost, remarkable human rights progress has been made in Xinjiang over the past decades. The allegations of the United States are light-years away from the facts.

One basic and plain example to illustrate the absurdity of the United States is the so-called genocide against the Uygur people. As a matter of fact, the Uygur population in Xinjiang grew from 3.6 million in 1953 to about 11.62 million in 2020, according to national census data.

In addition, the Xinjiang people, members of the Uygur ethnic group included, are living longer, getting richer, and pursuing a better life in various ways of their own choice. The region has become safe and stable thanks to China's effective counterterrorism and de-radicalization efforts.

Unfortunately, these facts have failed to impress the United States. On the contrary, its attacks against Xinjiang have become increasingly unscrupulous. The "Chinese Human Rights Defenders," an NGO backed by the notorious National Endowment for Democracy, interviewed only eight people to conclude that 1 million people were detained in "re-education detention camps" in Xinjiang.

Such hypocrisy and audacity have given the world pause for thought. "The entire world should be laughing at America for pretending to care about Muslims in China," independent journalist Caitlin Johnstone wrote in Russia Today. "All it cares about is undermining its chief geostrategic rival on the world stage, truth be damned."

This observation hits the bull's eye. Facing the collective rise of developing countries on the world stage, the United States has become anxious about its hegemony, regarding China as a threat that has to be dealt with.

With that calculation in mind, Washington has set its eyes on Xinjiang, which lies at the continental center of Asia. Lawrence Wilkerson, the chief of staff to former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, once publicly confessed that the best way for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to destabilize China would be "to foment unrest" in Xinjiang.

But unlike countries that had fallen victim to the U.S. hegemony, China has the will, wisdom and capacity to prevail over any plot to hinder its peaceful development.

What Washington needs to heed is that history does not favor imperialist excesses. It is high time that it woke up from its hegemonic dream of the last century. ■