China's Xinjiang High Official Says Sinisization Against Islam Is Inevitable

Illustration of air photos in Xinjiang City. (Wikimedia Commons/Anagoria)

JAKARTA - Top Communist Party official Xinjiang said on Thursday Islam's "Synisization" in the Muslim majority region in northwest China, where Beijing is accused of human rights abuses, was "irreversible".

"Everyone knows that Islam in Xinjiang needs to be initiated, this is an unavoidable trend," regional party leader Ma Xingrui told reporters on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary session in Beijing.

During a press conference, Ma and other regional officials praised the development of the Xinjiang economy, denied US accusations of forced labor and cultural genocide, and tried to describe the region as an open territory for tourism and foreign investment.

Ma, the former governor of a prosperous Guangdong Province and transferred to Xinjiang in 2021, stressed the need for coordinates of security and development'.

"The three forces are still active today, but we must not be afraid (to open up) because they exist," Ma explained, using a political slogan that refers to "ethnic separatism, religious extremism and violent terrorist forces" in Xinjiang.

Beijing in 2017 launched a security crackdown in Xinjiang, following a series of violent ethnic protests, resulting in more than one million people from several Muslim minorities being held in a re-education camp, according to human rights groups.

"We have taken a crackdown on terrorist activities, announcing and implementing anti-terrorism laws to combat various forms of terrorism," said Xinjiang senior lawmaker Wang Mingshan.

However, the briefing focused largely on the development of the Xinjiang economy, the potential for tourism and what officials described as cultural conservation.

Ma was flanked by two Xinjiang officials who were sanctioned by the United States for human rights abuses in Xinjiang Tuniyaz and former regional chairman Shohrat Zakir.

Separately, human rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread violations against Uighurs, the Muslim ethnic minority of about 10 million people in Xinjiang, including rejecting religious freedom entirely for Uighurs. Beijing firmly denies any violation.

Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for "Synisization" of religions in the country, including Islam, Buddhism and Christianity, urging his followers to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party above all else.

Citing VOA, synisization is a process of action to make something more Chinese character, or make it under Chinese influence.

It is known that about two-thirds of mosques in Xinjiang have been damaged or destroyed since 2017, according to a report by the Australian think tank.