Silence about documentaries betrays bias: China Daily editorial

The documentary Tianshan Still Standing — Memories of Fighting Terrorism in Xinjiang, which was aired on Friday by China Global TV Network, reveals with footage of real scenes how cruel and cold-blooded the terrorist attacks were in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Wielding broad knives, the terrorists chopped people's heads off and set off bombs among crowds in public venues.

The documentary also shows how hard police officers and armed police officers fought against these terrorist activities.

The 60-minute documentary is the third in a series. The first looked at the seriousness of the problem in the region, the second examined who was behind the extremism, this one focused on the human cost of the violence.

It offered firsthand accounts of the sufferings of families whose loved ones were killed in the attacks and the struggles of those who were maimed.

Given that major newspapers and TV networks in the West are normally extremely enthusiastic about "reporting" on topics related to Xinjiang, that the major media in the West have never said anything about the two earlier documentaries on the terrorism in Xinjiang that CGTN aired in December is telling.

If they had any evidence to show that what these documentaries revealed was untrue, they would not have spared any efforts to make it known.

But they have been silent about CGTN's two documentaries for six months and they will very likely continue to turn a blind eye to the third documentary CGTN aired on Friday.

It is their political correctness rather than the principle of truth for journalism that they follow when they report about what happens in Xinjiang.

With this political correctness, the fact that Xinjiang has not witnessed a single terrorist attack for 40 months, a great feat that China has achieved in its fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism in Xinjiang, is not the truth they are supposed to report. Their claim they uphold objectivity and balanced journalism rings hollow, since they clearly do not care about what has really happened in Xinjiang.

As made clear by the three documentaries aired by CGTN, the attacks had nothing to do with human rights.

Yet Western media outlets habitually criticize China's anti-terrorism policies in Xinjiang. Without bothering to see for themselves, they are willing to denounce the region's education centers as "concentration camps", when they are in fact learning centers for skills training and raising awareness of and resistance to extremist ideology.

As a result of such policies, there have been no violent attacks in Xinjiang for more than three years. But you would never know that from reading the reports on Xinjiang in most of the Western media. Since it seems many can't be bothered to even watch the documentaries, they are obviously content to serve the anti-China ideological cause of their political masters.