'Tribunal' aims to discredit Xinjiang policy

Roaring success of autonomous region ignored by West and its apologists

China said that the so-called judgment delivered by the "Uyghur Tribunal" is nothing but a political farce staged to curb the development of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and discredit China.

The "tribunal", set up by Western anti-China forces and the terrorist and separatist World Uygur Congress, has no legal basis or validity. All activities of the "tribunal" are nothing but a carefully staged farce, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement released on Thursday.

"The so-called tribunal has hired liars to tell lies and make false statements. The judgment fabricated by the lie-producing machine is just a political farce staged by clowns," the statement said.

It added that no matter how much effort the director and actors have put into the farce, they have drawn little interest from the public. Their lies cannot hide the truth and fool the international community.

Earlier on Thursday, the so-called tribunal concluded that "China, by the imposition of measures to prevent births intended to destroy a significant part of the Uygurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide" during a session delivering its so-called judgment in London.

On Friday, the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom released a statement saying that so-called Xinjiang-related issues have nothing to do with religion, ethnic groups or human rights, but everything to do with fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism. China will remain focused on doing the right thing and following the path that suits its national reality.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Xinjiang regional government said on Friday that the "judgment" is completely based on the presumption of guilt. The regional government strongly opposes the so-called judgment.

In fact, since 2010, the region's ethnic Uygur population has risen by 1.62 million, or 16.2 percent, to more than 11.62 million last year, the latest census data showed.

Claims of forced contraception and forced sterilization in Xinjiang, first made by German anti-China figure Adrian Zenz in June last year, were quickly used by some Western politicians as a weapon to attack Xinjiang's human rights situation. The "report" packed with inaccurate figures and false information that have been identified as such by Chinese researchers is listed by the "tribunal" as so-called evidence.

According to a white paper issued by the State Council, accusations of "suppression of birthrates" and "genocide" in Xinjiang are utterly groundless. It's up to individuals to decide whether or not to use contraceptives and how to use them. No organization or individual may interfere with this freedom, said the document titled "Xinjiang Population Dynamics and Data".

In fact, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has considerable potential to grow as it is relatively young and includes a large number of women of childbearing age. Implementation of China's new childbirth policy and supportive measures to boost birthrates will also promote steady population growth, the white paper said.