Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has long been perplexed with terror threats. To tackle this, the region has taken a slew of measures to combat violent terrorist crimes in accordance with the law. The vocational education and training programs are one such measure.
The programs are designed to improve students' abilities in commanding Mandarin, using their own ethnic spoken and written languages, acquiring legal knowledge and vocational skills.
"I was really happy to visit some institutions and centers in Kashgar and also in Urumqi. The vocational training centers are for these youths who might be infected with some way with the terrorists," Ibrahim Abdulaziz Alsheddi, member of Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council, told CGTN.
He continued that "we found these youths are participating in many enjoyable activities. They are learning languages. They are learning how to be a guide of tourism. They are enjoying music. And they are enjoying sports. So now, they are engaged beneficiary activities instead of following some kind of movement or reading unsafe information which might change their mind and behavior, and might be moved to someway to be a terrorist."
Countering terrorism and eradicating the spread of extremism is a common and arduous task facing the whole world. For years, countries and regions have been actively exploring their distinctive measures against terrorism. Some have accumulated experiences in de-radicalization, anti-terrorism and human rights protection via establishing "de-radicalization centers," of which China is a typical example.
The de-radicalization centers are designed to nip terrorism in the bud by education. Via sports activities and psychological counseling, and discussions on religion and secularity, trainees can better integrate into the society.
Alsheddi hoped that China's anti-terrorism experiences could be exchanged with other countries. "When we come here [Xinjiang], we really found it is a safe place and very friendly people. Everybody is engaged with a job and enjoying life."
"I think what has been done as we saw in the exhibition in Kashgar is that they have renovated the whole city. They rebuilt a lot of new houses. They give chances for a lot of people especially the young people to be engaged in the jobs. This happened in ten years as they said, which is really a good way to eradicate all bad habits in the society, especially the terrorism," Alsheddi emphasized.
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