By Sultan
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying continues to deceive the world by tweeting fake charts and numerical comparisons and juxtaposing them with the situations in democratic countries. By comparing the number of mosques in the Uyghurs’ homeland (East Turkistan) to the number of mosques in the United States and Europe, she often claims in press releases that China protects “religious freedom.”
She likes to ask which of the two, the US or China, is lying and which succeeds better in protecting the freedom of religion. China tries to cover up its crimes against humanity, such as the Uyghur genocide in ‘Xinjiang’ (East Turkistan), by calling it “prevention of religious extremism and terrorism.”
On October 7, 2022, the Spokesperson tweeted that there are currently 24,400 mosques in the Uyghurs’ homeland (one mosque for every 530 Muslims), which is more than twice the number of mosques in the United States, Germany, England, and France combined. The Uyghurs can see that these charts are blatant distortions. The Spokesperson also said that the Uyghur population has increased from 3.6 million in 1950 to 11.6 million in 2020.
If we do a simple calculation, and even if all the Uyghurs in Eastern Turkistan are Muslims, the total number is 24400 * 530 = 12932000, including the unborn children of Chinese mothers. Even if there are other Muslims such as Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Tungans, according to the statistics published by the Chinese government, the number of ethnic minorities in East Turkistan in 2020 is about 14,932,200. This means that the number of all Muslims in East Turkistan is closer to 13 million.
However, China shamelessly selects people of different ages and determines how many people can pray in each mosque. If we think carefully, many mosques in East Turkistan are community mosques and can only accommodate about 100-200 people. By saying that one mosque can accommodate 530 people, China tries to give the impression that the mosques in East Turkistan are large, which is not the case.
In the framework of religious policies in the occupied Uyghurs’ homeland, China prohibits students and government workers from engaging in religious activities. In Chinese statistics, the proportion of 0-14-year-olds in the Uyghur population is more than 30%, and they do not have the right to pray (in Uyghur or Chinese). In addition, high school, vocational school, and college students aged 15-22 cannot participate in prayer. Working people and peasant party members also are a substantial group. No women pray in the mosques. According to the Chinese policy, the number of those with the right to pray is only 10% of China’s 1.3 billion people.
(One cannot trust the statistics of the Chinese Central Government because the numbers in them are likely to be fabricated to mislead the world)
Statistics source: The official website of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China
Website: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce /2021-09/26/content_5639380.htm