Xinjiang condemns US for awarding fugitive

Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region officials said the US State Department's conferment of the 2020 International Women of Courage Award to Sayragul Sauytbay, a person wanted by the Xinjiang Public Security Department, is a travesty of human rights and an interference in China's domestic affairs.

On March 4, the United State's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo honored Sayragul with the award and said she "bravely provided accounts of Xinjiang's internment camps".

Ilijan Anayt, a spokesman for the Xinjiang government, said during a news conference on Thursday that "several times we have publicized the suspected crimes Sayragul has committed in China and exposed the lies she has fabricated. The Xinjiang government and its people of all ethnic groups strongly condemn and reject the conferment of the award to her."

On June 2015 and December 2016, Sayragul applied for a loan of 470,000 yuan ($68,000) from a rural credit cooperative with a false guarantee of materials and fabricated a purchase contract, and she still owes 398,000 yuan on the loan, Ilijan said.

According to Ilijan, on April 5, 2018, Sayragul illegally crossed the border into Kazakhstan from the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center.

Sayragul told foreign media that she was forced to work at a "detention camp" before running away from China.

Before she went abroad, she was head of a kindergarten in Zhaosu county, Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture. According to Bishala Sauytbay, Sayragul's sister, she had never been or worked at any vocational education and training center.

"Such a shameless person as Sayragul Sauytbay is, yet she was portrayed as a "human rights fighter" by some US politicians who just turned blind eyes to the facts, and repeatedly smeared Xinjiang with her lies and misled the international media," Ilijan said.

Meanwhile, in response to the prevention and control efforts related to the novel coronavirus outbreak in Xinjiang, Ilijan said the region has done a good job fighting the spread of the epidemic, and the economic and social order as well as production has been fully restored.

Most of the companies have resumed operations, he said.

By March 11, Xinjiang had 76 confirmed cases of the virus. Of those, three patients died and the other 73 recovered.

No new cases have been reported for 23 consecutive days, according to the regional government.