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Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived to a jubilant celebration in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on Tuesday, part of a trip to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the region’s founding.
Video from state TV showed dozens of dancing, flower-waving celebrants on the airport tarmac as Xi disembarked. State media reports say he met with representatives of ethnic groups and “expressed the hope that everyone would join forces and move forward together to build a beautiful Xinjiang.”
The friendly tableau stood in stark contrast to widespread allegations of abuses against ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang carried out by Beijing.
In 2021, the U.S. State Department labeled as genocide what it called a “systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state.” It alleged the Chinese Communist Party had arbitrarily imprisoned more than a million civilians, created a regime of torture and forced sterilization and drastically curtailed freedoms of speech, religion and movement among Uyghurs.
In June, a human rights group reported that major producers of Chinese minerals were using state-backed forced-labor programs to meet increasing demand.
RFA teams earlier this year reported on increasing online censorship in the Xinjiang region, building on the already tight restrictions on digital expression across China.
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the latest version of a bipartisan bill that would direct the State Department to oversee policies to protect Uyghur human rights and preserve Uyghur language and customs. The measure is awaiting consideration by the U.S. Senate.
Includes reporting by Agence France-Presse.
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