Western countries should learn from China's counter-terrorism experience

Note: The following article is taken from the Chinese-language "Commentaries on International Affairs".

Ambassadors of 37 countries including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have jointly signed a letter to the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council, praising the achievements China has made in the human rights cause, counter-terrorism and de-radicalization in its far western region of Xinjiang. The move provides support for the suggestion that the attempt by some Western countries to defame China’s policies in Xinjiang will not succeed. Instead, they should consider learning from China’s experience in relation to their own counter-terrorism battles.

Ambassadors of some 22 countries, mainly from Europe, had previously signed a letter to the U.N. Human Rights Council criticizing China’s Xinjiang policies. But such a move only reveals the double standards they’ve adopted on combating terrorism as well as their attempt to interfere in China’s domestic affairs under the guise of so-called human rights.

A song and dance troupe from Xinjiang participates in the Asian civilization parade in Beijing, May 22, 2019. [File photo: IC]

In fact, some Western political forces and media have been concocting various rumors about Xinjiang, labelling the vocational education training centers for de-radicalization as "re-education camps" in an attempt to defame the Chinese government’s legal counter-terror efforts. Such smearing remarks deliberately ignore the fatalities of innocent civilians and the damage to the local social and economic development caused by the severe terror attacks carried out by terrorist, separatist and extremist forces since the 1990’s. The education centers, by providing free training courses on the country’s common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills and de-radicalization to those who once committed minor crimes due to the influence of extremist thoughts, are aimed at helping the cause of eliminating the environment and conditions that breed terrorism and religious extremism and preventing terror attacks before they happen. Many local people who have been affected by extremist thoughts say that through learning, they have returned to the right track in life.

Such measures have generated notable results. Xinjiang has been free of terrorist incidents for almost three years. Last year, the region’s annual GDP growth reached 6.1 percent and the number of incoming tourists exceeded 150 million, up more than 40 percent. As a Belt and Road frontier in China's western region, Xinjiang is embracing bigger opportunities for development.

Counter-terrorism and de-radicalization is a globally challenging mission. China’s pre-emptive measures such as the vocational education centers integrate human rights protection and livelihood improvement with combating terrorism and extremism, and hence have won international recognition. The letter signed and submitted by the ambassadors of 37 countries to the UN Human Rights Council pointed out that China’s experience in tackling terrorism is worth sharing. Notably, quite a number of the signatory countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, are from the Islamic world. Some of those countries’ diplomats have recently visited Xinjiang and witnessed the situation there with their own eyes.

Western countries themselves have fallen victim to terrorist attacks in recent years. If they continue to adopt double standards on the issue, they will only be bitten back more fiercely. The residents of Xinjiang are the best to decide whether their rights are protected. The attempt to interfere in China’s internal affairs by attacking its counter-terror policies will turn out to be a failure. Those countries should send their envoys to take a closer look and learn for themselves the experience Xinjiang has had in fighting terrorism.