China finds support over Xinjiang from Gulf Cooperation Council

Representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, on Tuesday voiced support for Beijing's position on issues related to China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with top diplomats from three of the six GCC member countries - Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, or UAE - at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

The GCC supports China's counterterrorism and de-radicalization position and measures and vowed to increase exchanges and cooperation with China on such issues, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.

The other three GCC members are Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The GCC's support came as the Chinese side repeatedly criticized some US politicians' remarks on Xinjiang and Washington's attempts to raise the issue during the current UN General Assembly.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing's campaign in the Northwest China region was an attempt to "erase its own citizens' Muslim faith and culture".

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will hold a panel discussion about Xinjiang with relevant countries' permanent representatives to the UN and nongovernmental partners, according to the US State Department.

The US has been using religion and human rights as a cover to "slander and smear China's Xinjiang policies and interfere in China's internal affairs again and again", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Tuesday, adding that it is "going further down the wrong path" by holding the panel discussion. He urged the US to cancel the event.

"The issues in Xinjiang are not about religion or human rights, but about fighting separatism and violent terrorism," Geng said.

China's measures have produced significant effects, with not a single violent terrorist attack for almost three years, and the Uygur population has been increasing continuously, now accounting for almost half of the total population of the region, Geng said.

Fifty countries have co-signed a letter to the president of the UN Human Rights Council and explicitly commended the progress in China's human rights cause and its counterterrorism and de-radicalization efforts.

Around 1,000 foreign diplomats, officials and journalists who visited Xinjiang recently all spoke positively about the local fight against terrorism in accordance with the law, Geng said.

"Xinjiang's fight against separatism and violent terrorism is a fight between good and evil, between humanity and brutality, between the rule of law and violence," he said. "It deserves every understanding, respect and support from the international community."

During his meeting with GCC counterparts, Wang urged both sides to support each other's core interests and major concerns and voiced China's opposition to any nation interfering in the GCC's internal affairs.

China will increase its cooperation with the GCC on counterterrorism and de-radicalization, he said, adding that China supports the GCC countries to explore their development paths autonomously.

Bilateral cooperation between China and GCC nations has progressed in the past year, including a 30 percent increase in bilateral trade, said Wang, highlighting collaboration and exchanges in building infrastructure, two-way investment, 5G technology, tourism and culture.

Wang also suggested both sides accelerate China-GCC free-trade zone negotiations.

China is a reliable friend and important partner to the GCC, and the two parties have a solid political foundation, said GCC representatives, including Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman minister of foreign affairs; Kuwait's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah; Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs of the UAE; and Secretary-General of the GCC Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani.

GCC officials said enhancing their relationship with China is a major priority.