Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Relevant US remarks over China's Xinjiang region disregarded basic facts, slandered China's policy on religions, were full of ideological prejudice, and severely interfere in China's internal affairs, which China firmly opposes, spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mao Ning said at Friday's routine press briefing.

This came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made irresponsible remarks to international religious freedom summit where he claimed China is perpetrating "genocide" in Xinjiang region

China protects Chinese nationals' freedom of religious belief, and Chinese of different ethnic groups enjoy the freedom in accordance with the law, Mao said.

She said China has nearly 200 million religious believers and more than 380,000 clerical personnel. There are more than 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang alone.

In contrast, 75 percent of American Muslims believe American society has a severe discrimination against Muslims. The US is not qualified to make irresponsible remarks or point fingers at China, and its "genocide" claim is a US-fabricated lie of the century, Mao said.

Xinjiang currently enjoys social stability, economic development, ethnic unity and religious harmony as well as improvement in people's livelihoods. Over the six decades since the founding of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, regional economic volume increased 160 times, Uygur population increased from 2.2 million to 12 million, and people's life expectancy increased from 30 to 74.7 years.

The US disregards those facts and repeatedly hypes Xinjiang-related lies, with the aim to make excuses to contain China. The international community sees it clearly, Mao said, urging the US to respect facts and stop using human rights, religion and ethnicity as excuses to interfere in China's internal affairs and contain China's development.

Global Times