Double standard gives no credibility to US claims: China Daily editorial

In its annual human rights report released on Wednesday, the United States continued to play its self-proclaimed role as the world's human rights champion by pointing an accusing finger at other countries.

In the report, China's efforts in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are vilified as a repressive campaign against Muslims, while vocational education and training centers that aim to help local people learn skills that can help them live decent lives are smeared as "internment camps".

The accusations against China's de-extremism efforts in Xinjiang are totally unacceptable as they are based on distortions and hearsay. 

Despite the smears of the US, China's de-extremism efforts are not only lawful but also instrumental in protecting the human rights of all people in Xinjiang.

The region has a special strategic position and faces special issues as an important "security barrier" in Northwest China, and it is of great significance to the country as a whole that people of different ethnic groups enhance their sense of identity with the motherland. It is for this reason that Mandarin is being promoted and taught as the common language. 

And with the poor areas in southern Xinjiang among the main battlefields in the country's efforts to lift everyone out of poverty by 2020, the vocational training is a key part of the government's targeted poverty alleviation work aimed at realizing that goal.

The US should accept the fact that lies do not become truth simply by being repeated a thousand times. What Xinjiang has achieved in de-radicalization and restoring social stability debunks the US claims, as shown by the growing number of domestic and foreign visitors to the region. 

Although international efforts to combat the Islamic State terrorists seem to have won decisive victory in Iraq, signs of the group's members regrouping in northern Iraq are clear evidence that there is no guarantee that the extremist group will not revive some day.

China, as a responsible country that adopts a zero-tolerance policy toward all forms of terrorism and extremism, cannot allow the terrorist group's poisonous ideology to take root in Xinjiang and it has vowed to build a wall of steel in Xinjiang — something one might expect the US administration to appreciate. 

Instead, the US steadfastly refuses to recognize China's efforts as a valuable part of the international efforts to eradicate terrorism and the extremist ideology that fuels it.

People in glass houses should not throw stones, if the US is unwilling to wholeheartedly join hands with China and other countries in the region in their efforts to fight terrorism and extremism, it should at least reflect on its own human rights issues rather than trying to find fault with others.