People dance during the Saban festival of Tatar ethnic group in Tacheng, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 22, 2017. Photo: Xinhua

A senior official from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region slammed the so-called German scholar Adrian Zenz on Monday, saying his continuous speculation of Xinjiang-related affairs with Western media is out of personal interests and he is a flunky of the US. 

Xu Guixiang, the spokesperson of the regional government, rebuked Zenz at a press conference on Monday, saying that his so-called reports are all products of speculation, assumption and fabrication and have been overturned by facts.

He made the remarks when being asked for comments on Zenz's recent hypes on social media platforms over the so-called "genocide" accusation in Xinjiang.

"Why does Zenz keep using the same old tactics? From the root, he is only considering his personal interests and aiming at grabbing ill-gotten wealth," Xu said.

Xu said that Zenz had received considerable amount of money from some people in the US. "He received money from the US, so he has to work himself to the bone and become a flunky of the US." 

Xu noted at the press conference that Xinjiang is always open and policies implemented in the region are also aboveboard. 

"We welcome people from different fields from overseas to visit Xinjiang and learn the facts about the region so that the anti-China forces' lies can be broken. However, we also firmly opposed to any guilty presumption-style investigations or any activity trying to "prove" [rumors about Xinjiang] with ideological prejudice, Xu noted.    

Zenz, born in 1974, is a German. He gave himself the Chinese name Zheng Guoen. He used to work for the European School of Culture and Theology and went to China's Xinjiang in 2007 as a visitor. 

Starting in 2016, Zenz began commenting on China's Xinjiang, and wantonly slandering and distorting China's policies in the region. He made up more than 10 reports relating to Xinjiang, including one published in February, 2020, titled The Karakax List: Dissecting the Anatomy of Beijing's Internment Drive in Xinjiang. He also published another one in July titled Sterilizations, IUDs, and Coercive Birth Prevention: The CCP's Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birth Rates in Xinjiang. 

A number of companies and individuals in Xinjiang region sued Zenz earlier this year for spreading "Xinjiang forced labor" rumors which caused reputational and economic losses for the locals. A local court in Kashi accepted the case, according to local media reports in April. 

One of the companies told media in early November that the court had served a summons on Zenz to answer the charges in court. 

However, despite the complaints from Xinjiang residents and enterprises, Zenz keeps being a darling of Western media and actively releasing anti-China comments on Twitter.

"I hope everybody can sharpen their eyes in order not to be cheated by this shifty and money-obsessed 'academic rogue,'" Xu said at the Monday press conference.