Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

BBC on Tuesday reported that hackers downloaded and decrypted files from a number of police computer servers in Xinjiang, and the hacked data contains photographs of "internment camps" and "people who have been incarcerated."  Immediately after the report was released, the US State Department stated the US was "appalled" by the latest allegations and UK foreign secretary claimed the files contained "shocking" details. It has to be said that when it comes to cooking up lies about Xinjiang, Western media outlets and politicians have become so proficient in cooperating with each other. 

Making a rumor simply needs lips but refuting it requires constant efforts and investigations. Over the past years, the Global Times reporters have visited Xinjiang many times to do on-the-spot interviews and we know too well about the US and West's ability of cooking up lies without bottom lines. We found that people who were "dead" in Western media reports turned out to be alive well and many so-called "missing" people are living peaceful lives in their hometowns. So-called "detention facilities" in Western reports are in fact schools, governmental institutions, hospitals, residences, shops and so on.  

Xinjiang indeed suffered a lot in the past. According to incomplete statistics, from 1990 to the end of 2016, the "three evil forces" in Xinjiang committed thousands of violent terrorist incidents. The recent years have seen Xinjiang get rid of the shadow of violence and terror and life has returned to the right track. However, the US and the West suddenly showed "care" for the region's human rights, and formed a "flow production line" to churn out smears and slanders against Xinjiang, fabricating various plots of lies.      

This continuous campaign of smearing Xinjiang is essentially an evil narrative which applies to the US and the West themselves, in an attempt to use Xinjiang to contain China. They translated the "vocational education and training centers" into the so-called concentration camps and fabricated lies about "genocide" and "forced labor" in Xinjiang. They deliberately revoked the historical memory of Western people, reminding them of the American Indians in the 16th century, the 19th-century African slaves, and Jews in the 20th century. Now, they want to "replant" their own black history, but the indisputable truth is: between 1953 and 2020, the population of Uygurs in Xinjiang increased from 3.6 million to 11.6 million. Is there such a "genocide" in the world?

Coincidentally, the BBC exposure this time came just when Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, arrived in China and will visit Xinjiang. American and British politicians are making an issue of the BBC report, with an aim to put pressure on Bachelet. This scene is quite ironic: They first publicly pressured the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit China, but when Bachelet arrived in China, they declared that they are not hopeful for the trip. They were probably worried that Bachelet would tell the world the real Xinjiang and as a result their "lie of the century" to smear Xinjiang would be exposed, so they wanted to "take the initiative," on the one hand putting pressure on Bachelet, and on the other having prepared for Bachelet a basin of dirty water.

In addition to the timing of the news, the person who exposed the news and the platform where he did it are also telling. This time, it was Adrian Zenz again, the individual specializing in smearing Xinjiang, that provided information to the media after getting them from some anonymous source. Zenz, who claims to be "led by God" and shoulders the "mission" of opposing China and is supported by American funds, has ratcheted up efforts to make false accusations against Xinjiang to an eye-popping level. After being slapped in the face by China many times, Zenz still finds a space in the US and the West, and even becomes a guest to many Western politicians and institutions. This is the so-called credibility of the Xinjiang narrative created by some in the US and the West. 

The BBC is known for its record of Xinjiang reporting. It has always been "interested" in Xinjiang, and has made a lot of false reports. The Global Times reporters in February 2021 counted the BBC's Xinjiang-related reports for the past six months and found that about three-fourths of them are not signed, which is inconsistent with its positioning as an "internationally renowned media outlet." On Xinjiang-related topics, the BBC is no longer a news media outlet in the general sense, but a tool for systematic ideological attacks on China. The latest reporting by the duo of BBC and Zenz is just another show they are skilled in.

Fortunately, Xinjiang does not develop in the direction these people have expected. Xinjiang has not experienced violent terrorist incidents for six years, and people's rights to life, health and development have been guaranteed. In 2021, Xinjiang received nearly 200 million tourists, and the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents increased by 8 percent and 10.8 percent respectively. The people of Xinjiang will never become the hostages of the US and the West in a campaign of "using Xinjiang to contain China," and the prosperity and stability of Xinjiang is the strongest rebuttal against all the "lies of the century."