Claims that China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has conducted "genocide" or built "concentration camps" are baseless slanders, a regional official said Friday.
Shohrat Zakir, chairman of the regional government, said at a video conference that claims of genocide in Xinjiang are lies fabricated by former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his like, adding that the people of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang enjoy extensive rights and freedom.
"(The claims) blatantly trampled on international law and basic norms, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs and seriously hurt the feelings of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang," he said.
"Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and its people strongly condemn and resolutely oppose such rumors and slanders made by anti-China forces."
Chinese officials and experts have repeatedly refuted the genocide allegations made by some Western politicians and media, pointing to the steady growth of the region's Uygur and other ethnic minority populations in the past decades.
The chairman also denounced the "groundless slanders" that Xinjiang built "concentration camps" to incarcerate millions of Uygurs.
He said that Xinjiang has fully protected human rights in its crackdown on terrorism, noting that a series of measures have greatly improved the stability in Xinjiang, where no violent terrorist incidents have occurred for more than four years.
