A book published by an American publisher frames Xinjiang as performing "acts of cultural erasure" by fabricating a lot of false information regarding the region's cultural heritage, said Elijan Anayat, spokesperson of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.

The book Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities was published by Getty Publications in September.

Citing data from anti-China media and organizations, such as Radio Free Asia, and Bitter Winter, the book said, "It has been hard to verify the scale of destruction, but a series of investigations suggest that some ten thousand mosques have been demolished," in a case study section on Uygur heritage.

The book ignored the measures taken and achievements by Xinjiang to protect the cultural heritage of various ethnic groups, said the spokesperson.

He introduced Xinjiang's legal efforts to rescue and protect its intangible cultural heritage, as well as items that entered UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list, including Uygur Muqam art, the Meshrep harvest festival and the Kirgiz Epic of Manas.

Moreover, a total of 109 religious sites have been listed as key cultural sites under the protection at the national or regional level, according to Anayat. Special funds from both central and regional governments have been allocated to protect and restore these buildings. Intangible cultural heritage related to religion has also been protected as well. So far, Xinjiang has 9,542 immovable cultural relics.

According to the book, a huge gatehouse of the Idgah Mosque was demolished in March 2018. In the video shown at the press conference, the mosque, which is called Id Kah Mosque by locals, is well preserved.

More than a million yuan (about $145,000) has been invested by the autonomous region to conserve and restore it since the 1950s. In February 2014, some affiliated buildings of the mosque tilted due to the 7.3-magnitude earthquake in the Kunlun Mountains and they were labeled as dangerous houses and suspended from opening to the public as religious places.

In response to the book's claim of developing the shrine of Sultan Qirmish Sayid as a tourist destination where Uygur pilgrims need to pay expensive entry charges, the spokesman made a video call with one of the shrine's caretakers at the press conference.

Working in the shrine for five years, the caretaker introduced his job duties and the history of how the shrine has been protected since 1986.

Located in a vast scenic area which is open to tourists, the shrine built in the Qing Dynasty is currently closed to the public as the foundation of some of its buildings needs emergency reinforcement and repair.

(Cover: A booth at an intangible cultural heritage exhibition at the Xinjiang Art Museum in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, October 14, 2021. /CGTN)