China defended its internment of Muslims in the country’s northwest as a terror prevention measure on Tuesday, calling on the international community to reject “hearsay” and believeits official line.
Up to a million Uighurs and other Chinese Turkic-speaking minority groups have been placed in political re-education camps in the Xinjiang region, according to a group of experts cited by the United Nations.
After originally denying the existence of the centres, Beijing has repeatedly described the camps as vocational “training centres” that were built to help people drawn to extremism to stay away from terrorism and allow them to be reintegrated into society.
But the programme has faced rising criticism outside the country — notably from the United States and human rights groups.