I am writing this as a rebuttal to the The demonising of China's Uighurs by Farish A Noor.

While it is convenient to criticise China's record on treatment of its minorities, too much fiction rather than facts have been thrown around. If we are to do a country by country comparison, China's human rights record for the past 50 years should be lauded and be used as an example instead of being trashed.

Multiculturalism - which has been much celebrated in the developed West - didn't come into effect until the last 20 years or so. While countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States were still implementing discriminatory policies towards their minorities, a fairly comprehensive minority protection programme was in place in China in the 1950s.

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, China was a country ravaged by wars, famine and rebellion. The life expectancy of the average citizen was only 36. But in the 1950s, China is the only country in the world to set out a quota to guarantee university and government positions for minority community members.

There was, of course, a period of upheaval during the late 1950s and mid-1960s. However, it was an event that didn't discriminate on class or ethnicity. All Chinese citizens suffered greatly.

Now let us fast forward to the present. A comprehension analysis of the situation in Xinjiang can be found in this article here . Although the author is greatly biased against the Chinese central government, the article does show the real situation in Xinjiang.

The most distasteful of Farish's article is that he implied that Xinjiang is not part of China. The correct terms he should have used are Uighur Chinese and Han Chinese. I would find it very offensive if ethnic Indians, Chinese, Kadazans or Ibans are not considered Malaysians.

Another fact that he also left out is that the Han Chinese have been living in Xinjiang since 600AD or longer. The Uighur Chinese are not the only people in Xinjiang. Sizable Kazah Chinese and Hui Chinese are also in the area.

Any Chinese citizen should be allowed to moved freely in their own country but there is still travel restriction in China. But to imply that a certain group has a travel prerequisite is simply unrealistic and unfair.

Farish also mentioned that the nation's resources have depleted by the central government to serve needs in other parts of the country. The fact is that over the last 15 years, cotton, grain and farm production have gone up by five to 10 times in China.

The fact that the Chinese government funds all the mosques in Xingjiang was also not noted. In China, all minority groups (over 50) receive their mother-tongue education. All road signs in Xinjiang are in either two or three languages.

Though the main focus of Farish's article is on the demonising of the Uighurs, he failed to note that there are terrorist cells in China. Would any sovereign government accept clandestine and armed separatist groups in their country?

Yes, Xinjiang is considered an autonomous region in China. But I believe it would be better for Farish to specify what is lacking in the Xinjiang's populace rather than to quote empty slogans such as autonomy. To imply that there is a 'Uighur problem' is irresponsible. If there is specific human rights violation, please present an indepth analysis.

The situation in China is still far from perfect but to pull it out of context with negative pictures will only serve to mislead the reader. If all the facts and figures are gathered and a comparison made, it will be shown that the treatment of minorities by the democratic government of Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines are much worse than that of communist China.

In fact, the human rights record of the governments in North and South America are also despicable.

The purpose of my response is not to whitewash China's past record. What disturbs me the most is that China has become a convenient punching bag for bigoted Western writers (not you, Farish) while many injustices in other countries are glossed over.

By focusing on China, the injustices of many 'friendly' countries are ignored while the suffering of their victims continues. Wrongdoing by any country should be analysed without double standards or hypocrisy being applied.

The fact that communist China's human rights record is better than many democratic countries should be food for thought.

And finally, please find here an article on the myth of Tibet .