Shohrat Zakir, deputy secretary of the Communist Party committee for China's Xinjiang and chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, speaks during a press conference in Beijing on Dec 9. — AFPChina on Monday defended its vast network of re-education camps in Xinjiang and said it would continue “training” residents, following explosive government document leaks detailing surveillance and control of the region’s Uighur population.
In a press conference, Shohrat Zakir, chairman of the far-west region, rejected estimates by rights groups and foreign experts that more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are held in the facilities. “Students ... with the help of the government have realised stable employment improved their quality of life,“ Zakir said.
In addition to the centres, the Xinjiang government’s next step is to “proceed with daily, routine, normal, and open educational training to village cadres, rural party members, farmers, herdsmen, and unemployed graduates of middle school and high school,“ he said, without elaborating.