Xinjiang and its periphery are home to China’s largest Muslim population, known as the Uyghur. As with Indonesia, they have been influenced mostly by the moderate strand of Islam, one that espouses religious tolerance and communal peace.

Xinjiang was made an autonomous region in 1955 out of respect for its unique ethnic mix. Islam has been respected and practiced, as evidenced by the high concentration of mosques, higher than in most Muslim countries. Yet the growth of moderate Islam was challenged by an uptick in Islamic extremism in the early 1980s, culminating in several thousand terrorist attacks in Xinjiang that claimed hundreds of innocent lives, many of whom were Uyghurs.

Among the victims was Dilqemer Tursan, a young woman of Uyghur ethnicity. At the age of 21, she lost her legs to a terrorist explosion in Luntai County in 2014 and, with them, her dream of dancing. Aspiring to become a therapist to help other victims like herself, she still lives with memories of the blast.

The culprit behind most of the deadliest attacks is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). With ties to al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS), it has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations.

For decades, the ETIM/TIP has sought to radicalize potential recruits through malicious preaching that twists the true meaning of the Koran, as well as through online audio and video recordings on bomb making and detonation. Having carried out heartless attacks in and outside Xinjiang, the group presented the gravest security threat to the region until 2016.

A combination of measures helped to neutralize the threat. Drawing on hard lessons, the government came to realize that the fight against terrorism must be complemented by preventative efforts. Borrowing experiences from Muslim nations in Southeast Asia as well as Europe, it adopted the twin strategy of deradicalization and poverty alleviation.

It was with these goals in mind that vocational training centers were set up for individuals once tempted by extremism. There, the trainees were encouraged to acquire practical skills and essential knowledge of the law.

Alimjan Mamatali, one trainee, was just one step away from the abyss of extremism. Caught on his trip abroad to seek “jihad”, Alimjan chose to enroll at a training center instead of serving three years in prison. After graduation, he found a job with a stable income at a real estate company.

Efforts have also been made to boost industries that would unleash the economic potential of the region. A case in point is the cotton industry, which has lifted the lives of many in Xinjiang. These efforts have given people a greater stake in their community and higher hopes for the future, thus making them less likely candidates for ETIM/TIP brainwashing.

These preventative measures have paid off and, coupled with watchful vigilance, have halted the slide toward radicalism. For the past four years, there have been no terrorist attacks in the region. Peace and order have returned, and ethnic relations have improved.

Whereas the locals see this as a sign of progress, some in the West are waging a disinformation campaign. Labels such as “forced labor”, “systemic rape” and “genocide” have been pinned on Xinjiang. But the true state of affairs suggests the contrary.

It is ironic that those very countries that had slaves picking cotton on plantations just a few centuries ago are now backing accusations of the use of “forced labor” in Xinjiang’s cotton industry.

The truth is around 70 percent of Xinjiang’s cotton is harvested by machine nowadays. Where manual labor is involved, the high wage makes cotton-picking an attractive part-time job for locals and a swarm of seasonal workers.

However, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), an NGO claiming to promote cotton sustainability worldwide, has suspended licensing for Xinjiang cotton, even though its China branch stated that no signs of forced labor had been found in the region.

Apart from being untrue, the accusation is also hurting livelihoods in Xinjiang, where the cotton industry supports 5 million Uyghur farmers. Furious about diminished exports as a result of Western sanctions, they have lingering suspicions that what has been cloaked as a self-righteous move to advance human rights for the Uyghurs is but a thinly veiled attempt to hold back the region’s – and by implication, China’s – development.

Other unverified stories have also been widely reported by Western media. In February, a BBC report on “systematic rape” that cited the accounts of a Uyghur woman went viral. On closer examination, one can find the same woman admitting, “I wasn’t beaten or abused,” in earlier interviews with other Western news outlets.

The “genocide” label is even more of a far stretch. Defined as intent and action to wipe out an entire ethnic group, the claim is at odds with the changing trend in local demographics, with the Uyghur population doubling in the past four decades. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of Uyghurs in Xinjiang grew by a quarter, faster than the 14 percent region-wide population growth and a staggering 23 percentage points higher than that of the Han people (the second largest ethnic group in Xinjiang and the largest in China).

To expose these malicious lies, the Chinese government has in recent years invited hundreds of foreign religious leaders, diplomats, journalists and scholars to Xinjiang, including the leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, the Indonesian Ulema Council and other major Islamic organizations in Indonesia. “Seeing is believing,” these visitors have said, describing a situation at odds with the Western narrative.

More recently, the government has helped set up face-to-face meetings with cotton farmers and former trainees from Xinjiang for Western journalists. Hardly what you would expect if there really was something to hide.

A champion of deradicalization and a victim of false allegations, Xinjiang deserves fair treatment and recognition for its progress, as 64 countries pointed out in a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council in March.

The true stories of Xinjiang should no longer be swept under the rug.

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The writer is an international affairs observer based in Beijing.