China on Monday refuted comments made by Turkish Foreign Ministry on the alleged death of a Uygur musician, stating the Turkish side extremely "mistaken and irresponsible."

Turkish expert, Adnan Akfirat, representative to China of the Patriotic Party of Turkey commented that the Turkish government is misguided by "the lie fabricated by CIA."

In a statement on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy alleged that Uygur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit had died in custody. He also called the vocational training centers a "great shame for humanity." And hundreds of thousands of prisoners were subject to "torture and political brainwashing."

Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, clarified that the man is still alive and in good health. A video clip released by China Radio International, dated 10 February, shows Heyet is in a good state. 

Adnan Akfirat, who has been to Xinjiang for 20 times since 2004, stated the death of Abdurehim Heyit is a lie "fabricated by CIA," and "western media is distributing lies fabricated by CIA." He also added that the main problem in Turkey is that western media has too much influence.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the 1990s, the "three evil forces" (terrorism, extremism, and separatism) in China and abroad have plotted, organized and conducted thousands of violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, injuring and killing a great number of innocent people of various ethnic groups. Experts mentioned, under China's current policy, no violent incidents happened in 23 months, and the rate of crime has dropped considerably.

As a witness himself, Victor Gao, vice president of Center for China and Globalization recalled his experience of visiting Xinjiang over the past two years. He said that new measures adopted have created more educational and vocational resources for Xinjiang people, especially for Uygur ethnic group and have resulted in greater freedom, stability, and security.

"The majority people in Xinjiang, including all the minorities, are welcoming such development and greater stability in the political and economic situation," said Gao.

"The Turkish government should be more responsible not to interfere with other countries' internal affairs," Adnan Akfirat said, “Separatism is terrorism. Separatism is the same problem that Turkey is now facing."

Turkey and China have broad good relations, as the two sides are carrying out cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The two countries share many common interests not only economically, but also politically in terms of the fighting against terrorism and maintaining regional stability.

China has put in huge efforts in fighting against 'East Turkistan' terrorist forces over the past few decades. And, in 2017, Turkey decided to list the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) as a terrorist organization.

However, according to Xu Jianying, an expert in Xinjiang study from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Turkey has never cut off the emotional attachment with Xinjiang, making the intervention in Xinjiang always an option on the table.

When talking about the vocational education centers, Chinese ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai said in an interview with Reuters last November that while the United States was using missiles and drones to kill terrorists, China is trying to "re-educate most of them, trying to turn them into normal persons who can go back to normal life."

U.S. Senators recently have reintroduced the legislation of "Uygur Human Rights Policy Act," and some of the witnesses who testified before relevant Congressional committees have actually been proved to have lied.

Concerning the mistrust and bias that China is facing in western countries, Victor Gao commented that U.S. lawmakers are "creating more antagonism" because they "do not tell the truth."

Gao said that China and the U.S. actually face a common threat of terrorism, and the two countries should "cooperate more" instead of "being more divided." If terrorism in any form prevails, "it will prevail against the U.S. as well as China," added Gao.