China's ambassador to frontal attacks on SVT's reporting on detention camps

On Sunday, SVT reported on China's camp, which is said to be called "center for education and professional training".

It is about prison-like indoctrination camps in Xinjiang Province, according to an international survey conducted by SVT as one of 18 media companies. The review is coordinated by the journalist network ICIJ.

“It is extremely inappropriate for SVT to blindly follow any media in some countries and falsify and magnify issues related to Xinjiang. As an important news broker in Sweden, SVT must have its own and fact-based reporting and assessment, rather than listening to lies, ”writes China's ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou, in an email to SVT.

A leaked document shows how the detention camps in Xinjiang Province function as prisons where prisoners - mainly Muslim minority groups - are forced to learn loyalty to the central government in Beijing. The document also contains instructions which say that the prisoners should investigate themselves and be asked to "acknowledge past sins", reports SVT.

One of those interviewed by SVT about the camps says that she was beaten with rubber batons and witnessed how a prisoner was used sexually by camp guards before the eyes of other prisoners.

Sweden Ambassador Gui Congyou states that it is the issue of combating terrorism. He writes to SVT that between 1990 and 2016, thousands of violent and terror-related incidents occurred in Xinjiang and that resulted in many dead and injured as well as material injuries.

"Faced with such serious circumstances, Xinjiang fought these crimes in accordance with the law while addressing the root causes and doing its utmost to protect citizens' basic human rights against terrorism and extremism."

Now the authorities have stopped the terror, he says.

"Thanks to these preventive measures against terrorism and radicalization, Xinjiang, a place that once suffered from terrorism, has not experienced a single violent terror-related incident in the last three years."

The Ambassador claims that the measures have been approved by all minority groups. Those who criticize the measures support global terrorism, he says.

“China's efforts to fight terrorism and radicalization are an important contribution to the global fight against terrorism. There are those who criticize China's efforts to fight terrorism by establishing fully legal vocational and educational centers, and we can only interpret that as support and call for terrorism, ”he writes to SVT.