Reuters reported that China launched an unprecedented and fierce campaign, including an attack on women who complained of abuse, in response to the growing global pressure over its treatment of the Muslim minority.
With the increase in allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang, as increasing numbers of Western lawmakers accused China of practicing genocide, Beijing is working to question the testimonies of Uyghur women who have been behind reports of recent abuse.
Chinese officials identified women by name, published what they said were private medical data and information about their fertility, and accused some of them of having sexual relations, and said that one of them had a sexually transmitted infection.
Officials said the information was evidence of misconduct, calling into question women's accounts of abuse in Xinjiang.
"We have taken serious measures to refute some of the disgusting media acts," said Xu Guixiang, deputy head of Xinjiang's Propaganda Department, at a press conference last December as part of China's campaign to counter criticism.
The campaign includes hours-long testimonials and video footage of local residents and family members speaking.
Reuters' review of dozens of hours of performances in recent months, hundreds of pages of reports, as well as interviews with experts shows that there is a careful and widespread campaign indicating China's fear of losing control of what is said about Xinjiang.
"One of the reasons the Communist Party is so concerned about women's testimonies is that it undermines the initial assumption of what it's doing there, which is that it is fighting terrorism," said James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at George Washington University and an expert on Xinjiang politics.
"The fact that there are so many women in the camps ... they do not show any signs of violence, shows that this matter has nothing to do with terrorism," he added.
The Uighur minority is the majority among the nearly one million people reported by the United Nations to be held in camps in Xinjiang as part of what the central government says is an anti-terror campaign.
The accusations leveled by some Western activists and politicians against China include torture, forced labor and sterilization.
The Chinese government denies the accusations of violations in what it calls vocational training centers in the far-western region of the country, and says the allegations of systematic sexual abuse are unfounded.