Has China launched a crackdown on Muslims?

Full of ignorance of and bias against China, some people from the US and other Western countries have recently made groundless accusations against and disseminated many fallacies about China's human rights conditions concerning Xinjiang.

Here is one of the rumors they spread, and the fact.

Rumor: The Chinese government's brutal crackdown on Muslims is a human rights violation not seen since World War II.

Fact: 

- One of China's five ethnic minority autonomous regions, the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region is home to 25 million people of different ethnic groups who live and work in harmony. Among them, ten ethnic groups, including Uyghur and Hui, consist mainly of Muslims. The Muslim population has been growing steadily, accounting for nearly 60% of the total local population.

- Under a system of ethnic regional autonomy, China treats all ethnic groups equally and pursues prosperity and development for people of all ethnicities. It ensures that ethnic autonomous areas exercise the power to self-govern in accordance with law, and protects the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic minorities. In Xinjiang, every chairperson of the People's Congress, the autonomous regional government, and the CPPCC regional committee is from ethnic minority groups. Ethnic minorities take 64.2% of the seats in the 13th Xinjiang People's Congress, and 46.7% of the seats in the 13th CPPCC Regional Committee of Xinjiang.

- Xinjiang fully implements the policy of freedom of religious belief. The freedom of religious belief of all people, regardless of their ethnicity, is fully protected in accordance with law. Believers and non-believers enjoy the same political rights and economic, social and cultural rights.

- On 25 May, George Floyd, an African-American, was killed in Minneapolis in a brutal assault by a white police officer. His death triggered massive demonstrations and protests across the country, throwing into sharp relief the public outcry and anger over the systemic racism long in existence in the country. The UN Human Rights Council held an urgent debate and adopted a resolution voicing strong condemnation and urging concrete measures from the US to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and of people of African descent.