Photo taken on June 23, 2020 shows the logo of Australian Strategic Policy Institute in an office building, in Canberra, Australia.(Xinhua)

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has long been engaged in fabricating anti-China reports and lies and has no academic credibility. Their “reports” on Xinjiang are pure slander, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Friday.

Wang made the remarks in response to a “report” that ASPI published on Friday, which claims that 65 percent of the mosques in Xinjiang have been “damaged or totally destroyed.”

“Xinjiang has about 24,000 mosques, one for every 530 Muslims. The number of mosques in Xinjiang is 10 times more than those in the US, and the number of mosques per capita among Muslims in Xinjiang is higher than in many Muslim countries,” Wang noted. 

Human rights in Xinjiang have been fully protected, and the rights and freedom of the people of all ethnic groups, including the Uygurs, have been safeguarded in accordance with the law, Wang said.  

ASPI’s assertion that there are “detention centers” in Xinjiang, which do not exist anywhere in the region, Wang said. 

The addresses of the “centers” published by ASPI include industrial parks and even a five-star residential community, he noted, adding that such shoddy reports have no credibility, just as the institute itself. 

China on Thursday banned the entry of Clive Hamilton and Alexander Joske, two Australian scholars from ASPI, under the country's Exit and Entry Administration Law. 

Wang said on Thursday’s media briefing that whether a foreign national is allowed to enter China is a matter entirely within China's sovereignty, and China opposes any attempt to smear and attack it under the guise of academic research.