Xinjiang vocational education and training centers
The vocational education and training program (Chinese: 职业技能教育培训中心) in Xinjiang Province, China, parallels vocational and educational training programs throughout the country.[1] The program is associated with deradicalization and counter-terrorism operations carried out in response to the Xinjiang ethnic and religious unrest of the early 21st century and the actions of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
Since at least 2018, Western governments and media have claimed that the program is in fact a completely hidden and systematic program of genocide or ethnocide. Although Uyghurs, like many ethnic minorities, undeniably face discrimination in China, these allegations are overwhelmingly based on specious and disproven evidence,[2] fake news,[citation needed] and circumstantial arguments such as "satellite image analysis".[3]
Western allegations
Allegations of racial, ethnic, and religious abuse in Xinjiang, especially within the vocational training system, have abounded, up to and including genocide; while more minor accusations cannot be proven or disproven, claims of large-scale atrocities suffer from overwhelming inconsistencies and lack of evidence. The United Nations stated that it had found evidence of "abuse" but declined to use the term "genocide".[citation needed] This UN action is not to be confused with the misleadingly-named Uyghur Tribunal, an NGO based in Washington, D.C. which has no official connection to the United Nations and several of whose members are connected to Falun Gong, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the U.S. State Department[4] as well as citing the work of known fraud Adrian Zenz.[4] It is highly likely that in such a large-scale program, some abuses will have occurred.
Genocide
The term "genocide" has been abused in reference to the vocational training program. The Donald Trump administration, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, repeatedly accused the Chinese government of the crime of genocide in its Xinjiang policy, even after the State Department's own lawyers were unable to gather sufficient evidence for the claim.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ China announce vocational education action plan for 2020-2023. Australian Department of International Education website.
- ↑ Porter, Gareth; Blumenthal, Max (19 Feb 2021). "US State Department accusation of China 'genocide' relied on data abuse and baseless claims by far-right ideologue". The Grayzone - News and investigative journalism on empire. Retrieved 7 Jan 2024.
- ↑ Area, Research (29 Apr 2021). "China's Disappeared Uyghurs: What Satellite Images Reveal". RAND. Retrieved 7 Jan 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Behind the ‘Uyghur Tribunal’, US govt-backed separatist theater to escalate conflict with China. The Grayzone.
- ↑ State Department Lawyers Concluded Insufficient Evidence to Prove Genocide in China. Foreign Policy.