The 36-page report, titled Moderate Prosperity in All Respects: Another Milestone Achieved in China’s Human Rights, argues that the government is maintaining peace and stability in ethnic minority areas.
“With strong support from all ethnic groups, the government takes lawful actions to combat terrorists, separatists and religious extremists, to safeguard ethnic unity and social stability,” the report read. “People’s rights to a peaceful existence, to life and health, and to property are effectively protected, and their sense of gain, happiness and security continues to grow.”
The State Council Information Office said that regions where large ethnic minorities live, including Xinjiang, Guangxi, Tibet and Ningxia, achieved faster economic growth than the national average during the period between 2018 and 2020.
The report also highlighted educational development among ethnic minorities, saying that “in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, students enjoy 15 years of free education from preschool to senior high school.”
This is not the first time that China’s State Council Information Office offered a contradicting narrative to the one put forward by rights groups and the striking testimony of survivors and family members.
In July, the Chinese government reported on the conditions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, claiming that the group and other minorities are living in an “optimal period of development” thanks to the Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping.
Beijing said at the time that reports about human rights violations in the country’s northwest have been fabricated.
The July white paper also referenced the “re-education camps” human rights organizations say are mass detention facilities that have housed at least a million Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in recent years.
China’s cabinet report calls the facilities “vocational education and training centers,” but it doesn’t elaborate on their internal workings, noting only that they have been successful in preventing terror attacks in Xinjiang since 2016.
The U.S. in July responded to human rights violations in China as the Senate voted to ban all products entering to the U.S. from Xinjiang, with the legislation making it incumbent upon companies to prove their imports are free from the exploitation of Uyghurs and other minority groups in northwestern China.
The bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which passed by unanimous consent, was introduced by senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
Today’s state council report continued to highlight that the country “resolutely” fights religious extremism and cults but respects all religious groups and their activities. It said that the Chinese government believes that all religious groups can operate independently within the law, according to the report, and that it administers religious affairs nationwide but doesn’t interfere in the internal matters of religions.
As it claimed that China has achieved a milestone in the history of global human rights, the state office said that the Chinese government believes all religious groups can operate independently within the law, according to the report, and that it administers religious affairs nationwide but doesn’t interfere in the internal matters of religions.
It added that the Communist Party of China will apply new development philosophies to build a modern socialist China and to ensure that Chinese people “live a happier life and enjoy more extensive human rights.”
Newsweek reached to the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
