(Photo/CGTN)
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On January 20, the regional government of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region held a press conference on the educational situation in Xinjiang. The report presented a detailed picture of the students and schools' circumstances on the ground.
To solve the inconvenience created by the vast land between villages and towns, the regional government has been pushing for the construction of large numbers of boarding schools since as early as the 1980s. Parents who cannot manage to work and at the same time take care of their children on a daily basis are given the choice to send their kids to boarding schools on weekdays, and then they spend the weekend together. The official data shows that about 13 percent of primary school students and 45 percent of middle school students are enrolled in boarding schools now.
However, for many in the West, these educational provisions could be distorted into a sin of the government. As said in the press conference, "boarding schools are not unique to China." There are boarding schools throughout the world, including in the United States. And yet, when it comes to China, the students are "reported" as being "forced to separate from their parents and suffered from trauma."
Granted, there have been no shortage of rumors and accusations against government policies in the region. There are not-so-slight differences between online rumors, new stories and propaganda. Media should not be meshing the three together and publish articles based on personal biases and false information.
A New York Times piece published last December is an exemplary in this peculiar category of "news reporting." Authored by NYT's China correspondent Amy Qin, the article titled "In China's crackdown on Muslims, children have not been spared" has been a combination of displays of the author's own perception of reality, support from disreputable sources and a distortion of mundane routines or national norm into evidence of oppression.
