Chinese ambassador to Germany refutes lies on Xinjiang

BERLIN - Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken has refuted accusations over the suppression of Uygurs in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, calling it a lie spread by anti-China politicians.

"If you speak to the members of the ethnic minorities in China on site, you will surely get a completely different picture than what anti-China 'actors' want the world to believe," Wu made the remark in a recent interview with the German media WirtschaftsWoche.

"I have the impression that no matter what the Chinese government does, western media quickly come to the conclusion that Beijing is suppressing," he said.

There is no and has never been so-called "re-education camps" in Xinjiang but vocational education and training centers established in accordance with the law, Wu said.

The centers are "not that different from the 'anti-extremism centers' in France or similar institutions in the United States," he said, adding that they are designed to dry up the breeding ground for religious extremism and helped those at risk from extremism to have a better future.

The so-called "forced labor" in Xinjiang is a catchphrase of the targeted smear campaign against China, he said.

Foreign visitors are welcome to take a walk in and have a look at Xinjiang to understand the real situation, Wu said.