China newspaper defends Xinjiang Muslim crackdown

The Asian rout | The continent’s 128 billionaires lost $144 billion in 2018. The top three losers were from China, with Wanda Group’s Wang Jianlin losing $11.1 billion this year. Close to 40 percent of the Asians under the index, lost their billionaire status as of December 7. (Image: Reuters)

An official Communist Party newspaper is defending China's campaign of pressure and internment against the country's Uighur Muslim minority, saying it had prevented the far-northwestern region of Xinjiang from "becoming 'China's Syria' or 'China's Libya.'

Monday's Global Times editorial comes after a UN anti-discrimination committee raised concerns Friday over China's treatment of Uighurs, citing reports of mass detentions that is said "resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy."

Following attacks by radical Muslim separatists, hundreds of thousands of members of the Uighur and Kazakh Muslim minorities in Xinjiang have been arbitrarily detained in indoctrination camps where they are forced to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the party. Global Times said that was merely "a phase that Xinjiang has to go through in rebuilding peace and prosperity."