Shanghai (AFP)

German footballer Arsenal Mesut Özil, whose comments on the Uighur Muslim minority have irritated Beijing, has been removed from Chinese versions of the popular game Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), we learned from its distributor on Thursday.

Friday, the number 10 of the Gunners strongly condemned on social networks the Chinese policy of maximum security in Xinjiang (northwest), initiated in response to attacks.

"Korans are burned ... destroyed mosques ... prohibited Islamic schools ... religious intellectuals killed one after the other ... Brothers sent by force to camps", was indignant Özil on Twitter and Instagram.

The video game giant NetEase, which distributes the popular Pro Evolution Soccer in China on a mobile, said in a press release that it had withdrawn from the game Mesut Özil because of its "extreme comments".

Uighurs are one of the 56 ethnic groups identified in China. Mainly Muslim, speaking for the most part a language related to Turkish, they constitute just under half of the 25 million people living in Xinjiang.

"These comments shocked the sensibilities of Chinese fans and violated the spirit of love and peace in the sport," said NetEase.

"We do not understand, accept and forgive this comment," added the Chinese group, listed in the United States.

On Saturday, Arsenal distanced itself from comments by its Turkish attacking midfielder, saying that the club had "always adhered to the principle of not getting involved in politics".

A position that did not prevent the Chinese public channel CCTV from programming the broadcast of the match between the London team and Manchester City on Sunday. The PPTV streaming platform did the same.

China has been hit on several occasions by attacks attributed to Uighur militants, notably in 2014, during stabbing attacks at Kunming station in the south-west of the country (31 dead) and with explosives against a market in Urumqi (39 dead), the capital of Xinjiang.

Human rights organizations, researchers and Washington accuse Beijing of interning up to a million Muslims, mainly Uighurs, in political re-education camps in the region.

Beijing denies this figure and talks about vocational training centers, designed to help people find employment and keep them away from the temptation of Islamism and terrorism.

© 2019 AFP