‘Fake news’: China dismisses reports about detention of Uighurs
Chinese state media says claims of family separations in ethnic minority communities are ‘rumours’
A Chinese state media outlet has called overseas reports on China’s mass detainment of Uighur Muslims in internment camps “fake news” and published in-depth denials of eight “rumours” on the 10th anniversary of the Urumqi riots.
“Despite China’s efforts to tell what is really happening in Xinjiang, some western media and politicians insist on making and spreading fake news,” said an editorial in the Global Times, a tabloid run by the official newspaper of the Chinese communist party the People’s Daily.
Beijing has faced increasing criticism for its treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority ethnic group living in Xinjiang, a far western region of China. An estimated 1 million Muslims are currently held in detention camps in Xinjiang as part of a sweeping crackdown on the rights of the minority group.