Chinese officials claimed Tuesday that their internment camps used for the communist and Chinese cultural indoctrination of Uighur Muslims were actually centers for “vocational training…
Chinese officials claimed Tuesday that their internment camps used for the communist and Chinese cultural indoctrination of Uighur Muslims were actually centers for “vocational training.”
The UN reports Chinese authorities have detained approximately 1 million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the camps.
Those who have been forced into one of the internment camps claimed authorities made them recant their Muslim beliefs in favor of the doctrines of the Chinese communist party, while authorities have placed children of detainees in orphanages, according to The Associated Press. (RELATED: China Jailing Even Mild Critics Of Its Crackdown On Muslims)
“No amount of spin can hide the fact that the Chinese authorities are undertaking a campaign of systematic repression,” said Amnesty International of Beijing’s claims.
Beijing’s Tuesday statement comes as China’s latest attempt to defend its practices in the face of mounting criticism from the West.
The camps are an integral part of implementing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s policy of “sinicization” — the effort to make all Chinese citizens and religions within the country assimilate to a singular view of Chinese culture, which in this case means submission to the state, the Chinese communist party, as well as the cultural trappings of the Han ethnic group.
URUMQI, CHINA – JULY 07: Chinese policemen push Uighur women who are protesting at a street on July 7,2009 in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, China. Hundreds of Uighur people have taken to the streets protesting after their relatives were detained by authorities after Sunday’s protest. Ethnic riots in the capital of the Muslim Xinjiang region on Sunday saw 156 people killed.
