Beijing Says 13,000 'terrorists' Held In Xinjiang

China on Monday defended its controversial security crackdown in Xinjiang, saying nearly 13,000 "terrorists" have been arrested there since 2014.

Beijing has come under international criticism over its policies in the region. But the State Council hit back again with a white paper saying that the government "is relentless in striking hard, in accordance with the law, at any conduct advocating terrorism and extremism".

The document states that Xinjiang has long been part of Chinese territory but that "terrorist and extremist forces" have fomented separatist activities by "falsifying" the region's history.

"Since 2014, Xinjiang has destroyed 1,588 violent and terrorist gangs, arrested 12,995 terrorists, seized 2,052 explosive devices, punished 30,645 people for 4,858 illegal religious activities, and confiscated 345,229 copies of illegal religious materials," according to the white paper.

"The counter-terrorism work and the de-extremisation struggle in Xinjiang have always been carried out in accordance with the rule of law," it added.

The paper was quickly condemned by a Uighur rights group, which called it a "a political excuse to suppress the Uighurs".

"The purpose of releasing the so-called white paper is a means of getting local support for its extreme policies and to cover up human rights abuses," Dilxat Raxit, spokesman of the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said in a statement.

Xinjiang, which shares a border with several countries including Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long suffered from violent unrest, which China claims is orchestrated by an organised "terrorist" movement seeking the region's independence.

China has previously denied the presence of the internment camps, but have in recent months shifted to calling them "vocational education centres" akin to boarding schools, with students checking in voluntarily.

The "preventive measures" have brought a "marked change" in the region, with people having "a much stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness and security," the white paper said.

The new report said "law-based de-radicalisation" in Xinjiang has curbed the rise and spread of religious extremism.

Monday's report sought to underplay Islam's role in the region's historical makeup, saying that while it "cannot be denied that Xinjiang received the influence of Islamic culture," that did not change the "objective fact" that Xinjiang's culture is a facet of Chinese culture.

"Islam is not the natural faith of the Uighurs and other ethnicities, nor is it their only faith," the report said.

The report shows the "vague and broad definition of 'terrorism' and 'extremism' by the Chinese government," said Patrick Poon, a China researcher for Amnesty International.

"It's exactly because of the Chinese government's arbitrary and vague definition of these terms that leads to mass arbitrary detention of many ordinary people in Xinjiang," Poon said. (AFP, AP)