Xinjiang Photo: IC

China welcomes diplomats from the European Union to visit its Xinjiang region, but the EU delayed the visit again and again and put forward unreasonable requests, including meeting criminals who have been sentenced for splitting the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press conference on Friday.   
 
“This is a provocation to China’s laws and judicial sovereignty. The door of Xinjiang is always open and China’s invitation and sincerity have not changed. But the visit should not be an ‘investigation with the presumption of guilt,’” FM said.

In a recent interview with German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche, China's Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken said China has invited the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Xinjiang and the two sides are discussing details of the visit, but no reply has been received from the representatives of the EU after it issued invitation for them to visit the region.

China welcomes foreigners to visit Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and learn about the real Xinjiang, given that some anti-China politicians in the West are spreading lies about Xinjiang, Ambassador Wu said. 

No matter what the Chinese government does, some Western media reports are quick to conclude that Beijing is engaged in oppression of Uygur people in Xinjiang, he said. 

Wu emphasized that the so-called "forced labor" is a label invented by anti-China forces in the West to smear China, and that there are no so-called "re-education camps" in Xinjiang.

China legally established vocational training centers, which have no difference in essence from the "anti-extremism centers" in France and community correction centers in the US, said Wu, noting these institutions are all beneficial efforts to prevent terrorism and de-radicalize people.

Through education and training, China has eradicated the breeding ground for extremism and helped those who suffer from it secure a better future, Wu said. 

"The measures have greatly improved the situation in Xinjiang. There had been no terrorist attacks for four years in 2019, and participants in the courses at the vocational training centers have graduated and found jobs," he said. 

Wu added that many critics in the West have never been to Xinjiang's vocational training centers. "Direct communication with local ethnic groups in China will surely lead to conclusions that are different from what these anti-China 'actors' want the international public to believe," Wu said.

Foreigners are welcome to visit and look around Xinjiang to learn the real situation there, said Wu, revealing that more than 1,200 diplomats, journalists and religious figures from more than 100 countries have visited Xinjiang in the past few years. 

China has issued an invitation to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and talks about the details of a visit are being held. Representatives from the EU were invited a long time ago, but they have not replied, Wu said. 

Global Times