China says it has arrested nearly 13,000 people it describes as terrorists in the traditionally Islamic region of Xinjiang since 2014 and broken up hundreds of "terrorist gangs".
The figures were included in a government report on the situation in the restive northwestern territory that seeks to respond to growing criticism over the internment of an estimated 1 million members of the Uighur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.China describes the camps as vocational training centres and says participation is voluntary.Former detainees say they were held in abusive conditions, forced to renounce Islam and swear allegiance to China's ruling Communist Party.
The lengthy report issued Monday also says "law-based de-radicalisation" in Xinjiang has curbed the rise and spread of religious extremism.
The figures were included in a government report on the situation in the restive northwestern territory that seeks to respond to growing criticism over the internment of an estimated 1 million members of the Uighur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
China describes the camps as vocational training centres and says participation is voluntary.
Former detainees say they were held in abusive conditions, forced to renounce Islam and swear allegiance to China's ruling Communist Party.
The lengthy report issued Monday also says "law-based de-radicalisation" in Xinjiang has curbed the rise and spread of religious extremism.
Only a small minority of people face strict punishment, such as ringleaders of armed groups, while those influenced by "extremist thinking" receive education and training to teach them the error of their ways, the paper said.The main exiled group, the World Uyghur Congress, swiftly denounced the white paper.
"China is deliberately distorting the truth," spokesman Dilxat Raxit said in an emailed statement.
"Counter-terrorism is a political excuse to suppress the Uighurs. The real aim of the so-called de-radicalisation is to eliminate faith and thoroughly carry out Sinification."
'Murderous devils'
The white paper said Xinjiang has faced a particular challenge since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, as "East Turkestan" fighters ramped up activities in Xinjiang.
"They screamed the evil words of 'getting into heaven by martyrdom with jihad', turning some people into extremists and terrorists who have been completely mind-controlled, and even turned into murderous devils."
Religious violence under the banner of Islam runs counter to Islamic doctrines, and is not Islam, it added.
Xinjiang has long been an inseparable part of Chinese territory, and the Uighur ethnic group evolved from a long process of migration and ethnic integration, the paper said.
Turkey is the only Islamic country that has regularly expressed concern about the situation in Xinjiang because of close cultural links with the Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language.
China has denounced Turkish concern as unwarranted and interference in its internal affairs.
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