China Hails Xinjiang Jobs Success As Criticisms Rise

China lauded the success of its vocational and jobs schemes in the troubled Xinjiang region on Thursday, just days after the US government said they were being operated from facilities run like "concentration camps".

Beijing has come under intense international criticism over its policies in the resource-rich region, where rights groups say as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps.

On Thursday Beijing published a white paper staunchly defending its policy in the region, where it says training programmes, work schemes and better education mean life has improved.

The report said Xinjiang has "vigorously implemented employment projects, enhanced vocational training, and expanded employment channels and capacity".

It says vocational training for millions has improved the quality of the workforce.

"Xinjiang has built a large knowledge-based, skilled and innovative workforce that meets the requirements of the new era," the report reads.

Training includes teaching written and spoken Mandarin, labour skills and giving knowledge of urban life, according to the report, which says rural people have started businesses or taken employment in factories after state support.

Every year between 2014 and 2019, Xinjiang gave "training sessions" to an average of 1.29 million urban and rural workers, it says, adding that employment policies "meet the people's needs (and) improve their well being".

However, the white paper warns there is a low level of vocational skills and says "terrorists, separatists and religious extremists" have encouraged the public not to learn Chinese, to "reject modern science, and refuse to improve their vocational skills".

In a white paper on Xinjiang in March, Beijing defended its controversial security crackdown and said nearly 13,000 "terrorists" have been arrested there since 2014. (AFP)