Sham showpiece for Xinjiang lies will not grant them credibility: China Daily editorial

A "Uygur Tribunal"? Whatever next? The so-called tribunal, which has no legal standing nor moral authority, takes the fabrications concerning the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to a farcical extreme.

The organizers claim the spectacle to be staged from Friday to Monday will present the world with "witness testimonies" to support the allegations of "genocide" against the Uygur and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

But one doesn't need a crystal ball to know that these "witnesses" from a variety of backgrounds who will testify to the "concentration camps", "torture", "sexual violence" and "forced sterilization" in Xinjiang will be those with an axe to grind against Beijing.

Certainly, those who have established the "tribunal" — Geoffrey Nice QC at the request of Dulkun Isa, President of the World Uygur Congress — are not predisposed to objectivity and neutrality. Both are determinedly anti-China. Likewise, while the composition of the panel includes individuals with backgrounds in academia, law, education, diplomacy, and business, they no doubt harbor the presumption of guilt, otherwise they would not have been invited to participate.

The central and Xinjiang authorities have denounced this travesty of justice in no uncertain terms. It is "simply absurd" to see an illegal tribunal holding a "hearing" on the "lie of the century", a Xinjiang regional government spokesman said. And multiple official media outlets have depicted it as an escalation of the Western anti-China forces' smear campaign.

Beijing has staunchly and consistently denied any wrongdoing in Xinjiang, and pointed to the origins of the claims of "concentration camps" and "genocide", which by following the money can be traced back to US government agencies.

It is thus inevitable that the scheduled hearings will only serve to further escalate tensions between the West and China over Xinjiang, while failing to bring the rest of the world closer to what has really happened and is happening in the northwest China's autonomous region, where the government's deradicalization initiatives have effectively put an end to the violence in which it had been mired for years.

Both the central authorities in Beijing and local authorities in Xinjiang have dismissed the "tribunal" as a politically motivated move against China. Since it serves as a megaphone to amplify the lies already being told about Xinjiang, there will be no voices from their side to belie the false accusations.

The hearings are a sham of procedural justice designed to arrive at a predetermined verdict. Rather than smearing China, they highlight the moral degeneration of the anti-China campaign pursued by some Western countries and beg the question how low they are willing to stoop to attain their ends.