Beijing defends Xinjiang crackdown

China yesterday vowed it would “never be soft” in its crackdown in Xinjiang, after a massive leak of government documents shed new light on the mass detention of Muslims in the far-west region.

Over 400 pages of internal papers obtained by the New York Times showed that President Xi Jinping ordered officials to act with “absolutely no mercy” against separatism and extremism in Xinjiang.

The documents, leaked by an unnamed official, included unpublished speeches by Xi as well as directives on the surveillance and control of the Uighur minority, the newspaper reported on Saturday.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Monday accused the Times of “turning a blind eye to the facts” while “taking meaning out of context to publicise so-called internal documents, slander and smear counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation efforts in Xinjiang”.

 

Beijing defends Xinjiang crackdown

China yesterday vowed it would never be soft in its crackdown in Xinjiang, after a massive leak of government documents shed new light on the mass detention of Muslims in the far-west region. Over 400 pages of internal papers obtained by the New York Times showed that President Xi Jinping ordered officials to act with absolutely no mercy against separatism and extremism in Xinjiang. The documents, leaked by an unnamed official, included unpublished speeches by Xi as well as directives on the surveillance and control of the Uighur minority, the newspaper reported on Saturday. Chinas foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Monday accused the Times of turning a blind eye to the facts while taking meaning out of context to publicise so-called internal documents, slander and smear counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation efforts in Xinjiang.