Beijing: China on Tuesday criticized Pope Francis for referring to the alleged suffering of China’s Uighur Muslim Minority group in a new book. Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said Francis’ remarks had “no factual basis.”
“All ethnic groups here have social, religious, and all kinds of freedom,” Zhao told a daily reporter. However, the spokesperson did not mention the camps in which more than one million Uighurs and people from other Chinese Muslim minority groups are housed.
It is noteworthy that along with human rights groups, the governments of the United States and other countries allege that these prison-like camps are aimed at separating Muslims from their religious and cultural heritage and their faith in the ruling Communist Party of China. The Party of China and its leader Xi Jinping are to be forced to declare.
China initially denied the existence of such camps but later said that the purpose of these camps was to provide employment training and prevent terrorism and religious extremism on a voluntary basis. The Pope’s new book “Let Us Dream” is due on December 1.
