An attempt by China to quash concern about a network of centers that the US has branded as little more than “brainwashing” camps and “straight…
An attempt by China to quash concern about a network of centers that the US has branded as little more than “brainwashing” camps and “straight out of George Orwell” appears to have backfired with critics saying Beijing is now on the defensive.
In a rare interview, a senior Chinese official’s reassurance that the camps had helped people learn new skills and boasted “nutritious, free food.” But the happy view of the camp took a turn when he was quoted as saying they had also helped people “realize their mistakes.”
People at the camps have said they have been incarcerated against their will, but Shohrat Zakir, governor of the Xinjiang region, said they were nothing more than “boarding schools.”
And he said “graduates” from the centers were positively joyous about their time away from home with one reported as saying: “My wife has become more considerate.”
In the interview, published on Monday by China’s state news agency Xinhua, Zakir is neither asked nor comments on accusations that the centers are actually little more than heavily guarded internment camps where people resistant to Beijing’s worldview are sent for re-education. Or how many people are at them.
Officially called “vocational education and training” centers, the Chinese Government has said the camps are essential to quell dissent in the restive province and had helped the region become “safe and stable.”
Xinjiang is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of the country with the Muslim Uighurs, a Turkic people, the largest ethnic group outnumbering Han Chinese.
Agitation by separatist and radical Islamic groups, some of it violent, has led to a heavy crackdown by the central government. But international observers have said this has increasingly gone far beyond weeding out terrorists and now anyone who doesn’t follow the Communist party’s line could be in Beijing’s sights.
“Brainwashing”
More than a million Muslims are allegedly being held in the prison-like camps, according to human rights organizations and US officials.
Last week, it emerged the province’s government had introduced new laws to give a legal basis to the detentions.
Earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence said camp “survivors” had endured “around-the-clock brainwashing” and there was a deliberate attempt by Beijing to “strangle Uighur culture and stamp out the Muslim faith.”
On Monday, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the UN, described the situation as “straight out of George Orwell.
