Sky News. 6 July 2021

Below is an article published by Sky News. Photo:AFP.

President Xi Jinping has conferred an honorary counterterrorism title on Xinjiang’s armed police as China celebrates the elimination of terrorism through the introduction of Uyghur Muslim re-education camps.

Monday July 5 marked the 12th anniversary of the Urumqi riots where tensions between Uyghur Muslims and the Han Chinese population erupted in Xinjiang in 2009.

The ensuing riots resulted in the deadliest unrest China had seen in decades although the fatality count remains a hotly disputed topic.

The Chinese Embassy in Australia said the July 5 incident was a “serious and violent crime” which had partly been “plotted and incited” by outside forces resulting in the loss of innocent lives.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has declared China a larger threat than COVID-19 or climate change. The Nationals leader warned Australia is starting to see a sense of totalitarianism from President Xi Jinping after his address marking 100…

China’s propaganda mouthpiece the Global Times rejected the Western account of the unrest as merely conflict between people groups rather than terrorist action, saying the label was a “smear” against China’s policing measures.

“The US and some Western countries out of political purposes had attributed the July 5 riots to ‘conflicts’ between Han people and ethnic minority people to sow discord and exonerate separatists,” it reported.

“They also smeared China’s anti-terrorist measures as ‘oppression’ of ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region.”

The article went on to praise the use of “vocational education and training centres” as crucial in reducing poverty in the region and achieving peace and stability.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says there are three Cs challenging Australia – COVID-19, climate change and China – and Beijing is by “far and away” the biggest threat. His remarks come just days after the centenary of the Chinese Communist…

“In a still challenging environment at home and abroad, a strong anti-terrorism campaign and intelligent armed forces can never be absent,” Chinese University Research fellow Wang Jiang said on Monday.

“Those foreign forces who have attempted to whitewash the terrorist nature of the July 5 riots … their efforts are doomed to be futile.”

Xinjiang regional government spokesperson Xu Guixiang claimed anti-China forces in the United States and the West do not genuinely care about ensuring ethnic minorities are given human rights in Xinjiang.

“Their fundamental aim is to use the so-called Xinjiang issue as a tool and the ‘protection of human rights’ as an excuse to undertake political manipulation, promote hegemony,” he said.

“This will once again send Xinjiang into frequent violent and terrorist activities and social unrest.”

Labor MP Catherine King says it is incredibly important for China to be “called out” for the horrific atrocities committed against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. The Chinese Embassy in Canberra hosted a press conference on Wednesday in an attempt…

It comes after a report published by Amnesty International detailed the “dystopian” persecution of Uyghur Muslims exposed through first-hand testimonies.

The charity accused CCP authorities of committing “crimes against humanity” against Uyghur Muslims via a program of mass imprisonment, torture and surveillance.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said “the Chinese authorities have created a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region”.

Co-editor of the China Story Yearbook Series Professor Jane Golley says the 2020 edition will “debunk” the popular media story suggesting one million Uyghur Muslims currently work in Chinese concentration camps. Ms Golley said the scholarly…

“Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities face crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations that threaten to erase their religious and cultural identities,” she added.

The report also claimed the details surrounding China’s extensive network of “transformation-through-education” camps had been intentionally hidden through a major misinformation campaign. 

The report brought ongoing CCP human rights abuses against ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang province into the media spotlight drawing condemnation from the United States and other G7 nations.

Last Thursday the United States described state-sponsored forced labour in China as an “affront to human dignity” and an “example of the People’s Republic of China unfair economic practices”.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says the “only thing” we can do in our nation is “make ourselves strong”. “That means our agricultural sector, open up new areas of irrigation … don’t be scared about going to nuclear power, and mining -…

“The PRC’s use of forced labour in Xinjiang is an integral part of its systematic abuses against the Uyghur population and other ethnic and religious minority groups,” the US said.

American Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have issued multiple ‘Withhold Release Orders” targeting silica-based products made in Xinjiang.

President Xi’s conferral of the honorary counter terrorism title follows closely behind centennial celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party which is emerging as a superpower on the world stage.

SKYNEWS.COM.AU1:19Australia will continue to call out China’s ‘unacceptable’ treatment of Uyghurs

Trade Minister Dan Tehan says the Australian government will continue to make it “very clear” China’s human rights abuses against its Uyghur Muslim population are “completely unacceptable”.

“The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us,” President Xi told 70,000 supporters packed inside Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

“Whoever nurses delusions of doing that will crack their heads and spill blood on the great wall of steel built from the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese people,” he said.

It comes after China launched retaliatory trade action against Australia after Mr Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

At present Beijing has brought economic negotiations with Canberra to a grinding halt – cutting off streamlined communication with the country.