'Xinjiang act' fully displays US hypocrisy

The passage of a so-called act to "protect Xinjiang's human rights" by the US House of Representatives on Tuesday is another US attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs, which deserves condemnation. The United States has wantonly twisted the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and leveled baseless charges against the Xinjiang authorities that have been successfully combating terrorism.

This blatant disregard for China's sovereignty once again exposes the US' evil designs in the name of protecting human rights to maintain its global hegemony.

That the act is full of stale lies about Xinjiang is evident from its claim that China has a long history of repressing Muslims, particularly the Uygurs, and has systematically discriminated against the minority ethnic groups.

Some US politicians and media outlets, without any evidence, allege that the Chinese government has forced the Uygurs in Xinjiang to celebrate Chinese New Year. By turning a blind eye to facts, they claim the vocational training centers in the region are political re-education camps where Uygurs in large numbers have been arbitrarily detained and tortured.

Worse, US politicians have politicized simple economic cooperation between some US companies and the Xinjiang regional government, by alleging it is designed to help the government to trample on people's human rights. It also criticizes the Belt and Road Initiative for ignoring the political, religious, cultural and linguistic rights of ethnic minorities.

Yet the big achievements Xinjiang has made in its war against extremism prove the US politicians are fabricating lies to confuse the public and tarnish China's image in the international community.

The bill has taken the US art of calling white black to another level. To fight the evils of extremism, terrorism and separatism, the Chinese government adopted a series of measures that have proved effective. The fact that Xinjiang has not seen a single terrorist case in nearly three years attests to the effectiveness of China's policy.

But the US bill says that it is such suppressive measures of the Chinese government that have led to the unrest in the region. What can be more absurd? It seems the US prefers to see more innocent people being killed instead of recognizing the rightfulness of China's policy.

The "mass detainment of ethnic groups and aggression on their human rights", as the US act describes, cannot be further from truth. China's policies and actions in the Xinjiang region have been in strict accordance with law and the consensus of the international community on fighting extremism and terrorism. But the US has twisted the facts of China's fight against terrorism in order to protect the rights of all Xinjiang people to claim the China's efforts are aimed at fulfilling the opposite purpose. It also views the security checks and monitoring measures implemented to safeguard public safety as undermining people's right to privacy.

That the US is using double standard is nothing new. It was Washington that employed extremely harsh measures against suspects in the name of fighting terrorism, including illegally imprisoning suspects for long periods and brutally torturing them at facilities such the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The US has also spied on politicians and ordinary people, arbitrarily collected data from individuals' phones and computers, and killed tens of thousands of innocent people in its "war on terror".

The international community and human rights institutions have condemned these US acts. Yet thanks to the US' hegemony over global discourse, it has got away with its brazen violation of human rights on the pretext of fighting terrorism, while shamelessly criticizing China's legitimate actions. Only political motives could have prompted the US to do so.

Disregarding China's sovereignty, the US politicians have come up with the most outrageous demands such as those to close the vocational training centers, despite the fact that the centers have greatly helped the region restore order and keep violence in check over the past three years.

What the US politicians have said and done are enough for the global community to realize that the motive behind their move is to sustain the US' hegemony in the name of protecting human rights.

The author is director of the Research Center for Human Rights and a professor at the Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.