Fresh and shocking footage of acts of terrorism in Xinjiang in the past two decades has been released in response to the U.S. government's criticism of China's current prevention measures.

Surprisingly, so far, major Western media outlets have been relatively quiet regarding the newly released documentaries about Xinjiang.

On December 9, China's State Council Information Office has offered clear numbers to mark the progress made in Xinjiang and said that the U.S. is using double standards regarding anti-terrorism and eliminating extremism.

Based on the records from the State Council Information Office, the Chinese government's anti-terror measures have been effective in Xinjiang in that there have been no violent attacks in the past three years.

Why is the U.S. pushing a Xinjiang bill now?

On December 3, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill related to Xinjiang, demanding a tougher action from the Donald Trump administration on the Chinese government.

Fraser Cameron, director of the EU-Asia Centre in Brussels, said most of the people pushing the bill in Congress are doing it to score political points. For example, he said Mike Pompeo is using the issue as a party campaign tool in his run for the U.S. Senate, and Mike Pence is playing to the conservative base.

Cameron also believes Trump doesn't care very much about what's happening in Xinjiang, or anywhere else in terms of human rights protection.

"I don't think it's (U.S. Xinjiang bill) a major factor in U.S.-China trade dispute," Cameron said. "It's not going to have a really big impact. I can see why China is annoyed about it."

Does the U.S. have a double standard on human rights issues?

According to Ghanbar Naderi, a columnist at Kayhan International, China is not an exception with regard to anti-terrorism and anti-extremism. Noting that "U.S. foreign policy has been bankrupt for a long time," Naderi said the intention behind U.S. accusations against China in Xinjiang is to put further pressure on China to affect the ongoing trade negotiations between the Chinese and American delegates. 

"The other idea is trying to attract attention from America's own poor human rights records not just [on] American soil but also in places like the Middle East," he said.

Naderi said the most important intention "is to prevent China's growing progress in technology, economy and so on."

"China is the second-biggest economy, and it is soon going to replace America as the number one global economy, so America is desperate," he said.

What do the newly released documentaries on Xinjiang show?

Huo Zhengxin, professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the documentaries released by CGTN provide a lot of concrete evidence to justify the Chinese policy and measures in Xinjiang against terrorism and extremism during the 1990s and 2000s when terrorist attacks were rampant. He believed that each country is responsible for taking efficient measures to fight against terrorism according to law.

Regarding the silence of Western media on China's Xinjiang documentaries, Wang Cong, a Global Times reporter, criticized that the Western media, especially those in the U.S. and the UK, saying that they cherry-pick what to report and only cover information that suits their narratives.

"Dialogue with Yang Rui" is a prime time English-language daily talk show on CGTN. The 30-minute program covers a wide range of domestic and international topics, providing a balanced and critical perspective on current affairs and analysis within the framework of cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary comparisons.

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