Saudi newspaper prints full-page denial of China's Uighur persecution

A Saudi semi-official news outlet Okaz is facing criticism after publishing a column by a Chinese envoy denying the allegations that his country is persecuting Uighur Muslims.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff

11 July, 2020

Beijing has been subject to allegations of gross human rights abuses against muslim minorities [Twitter]

China's Consul General in Jeddah, Tan Banglin, denied Uighur violations by Beijing that have prompted US sanctions in a recent full-page piece published by the semi-official Saudi daily Okaz.

A photo of the full-page column, which denied the existence of Uighur internment camps and called them anti-terrorist centres, circulated on Twitter angering rights activists.

The published column, entitled "Myths and Facts about Human Rights in Xinjiang", also dismissed reports of abuse against the mostly-Muslim persecuted ethnic minority as "Western propaganda".

The newspaper came under fire for "defending China's horrific treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang", while many slammed Okaz for helping "spread propaganda" by the Chinese state.

"It's bizarrely symbolic to allow a Chinese diplomat dispel 'propaganda' [about] persecuting Muslims in a newspaper in Saudi, of all Islamic countries," Annas Shaker, a Saudi researcher wrote.

Twitter Post

Sultan Amer, an outspoken activist, said the outlet was actively justifying rights abuses by voicing a diplomat's opinion without challenging it.

"We are waiting for Okaz - since it is a platform to justify massacres and major crimes - to publish another article by the Syrian Foreign Minister that reveals to us the facts and fallacies about human rights in Syria," Sultan Amer, an outspoken activist said.

Read also: Exiled Uighurs bring first-ever ICC claim against China

Last year, the kingdom which lauds itself as the protector of Islam came under fire after Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman defended China's unprecedented crackdown on up to two million Muslims.

Meanwhile, the US has imposed sanctions on several officials from China's ruling Communist Party, accusing them of serious human rights abuses against Uighurs.

Witnesses and human rights groups say that China has rounded up more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang in re-education camps.

Beijing describes the facilities as job training centres aimed at steering people away from terrorism following a spate of violence blamed on separatists.

Uighur activists say China is using the internment camps to conduct a massive brainwashing campaign aimed at eradicating their distinct culture and Islamic identity.