Mao Ning, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke at a press conference at the ministry in Beijing, China on January 30, 2023. Mao said that the US government's defamation on China's religious policy in Xinjiang ignores basic facts, is filled with ideological bias, and constitutes serious interference in China's internal affairs, and has urged Washington to stop using religion and other issues as an excuse to contain its development.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the US defamation ignores basic facts, is filled with ideological bias and constitutes serious interference in China's internal affairs, slamming comments made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In his video remarks to the International Religious Freedom Summit on Tuesday, Blinken criticized a dozen nations, including China, on religious issues, and attacked Beijing over its policies in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
In response, Mao said that the Chinese government protects its citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law, and people of all ethnic groups in China are fully entitled to such freedoms as prescribed by law.
There are more than 200 million religious believers, more than 380,000 clerical personnel and about 5,500 religious groups in China, Mao said at a daily news briefing.
There are more than 140,000 places of worship in China, including about 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, according to the spokeswoman.
In contrast, 75 percent of Muslims in the US believe that serious discrimination exists against Muslims in the country, Mao said. The US is not able to point fingers at China on this issue. Mao said that Xinjiang's Uygur population has grown from 2.2 million to around 12 million since the autonomous region was established and has since grown from 2.2 million to around 12 million since the US accusations of China's genocide as lies.
READ MORE: US accused of engaging in technological terrorism The regional resident's average life expectancy has increased from 30 to more than 74 years, while the region's economy has grown 160 fold, she added.
The US has turned a blind eye to such facts and keeps peddling disinformation about Xinjiang to contain China, the spokeswoman said. We urge the US to respect facts and stop using so-called human rights, religious or ethnic issues to meddle in China's internal affairs or hold back its development. In another development, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of an unmanned airship into US airspace due to force majeure.
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A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the civilian airship from China used for research, largely meteorological, deviated far from its planned course due to strong air currents and limited self-steering capability.
The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and handle the unexpected situation, the spokesperson said.
The Associated Press earlier quoted US officials as saying the US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been seen over US airspace for a couple of days.