GENEVA (Reuters) – Chinese vice foreign minister Le Yucheng on Friday defended what China calls its vocational training centers in Xinjiang for Muslims and said its “campuses” would be closed down gradually as extremist ideology is vanquished in the region.

China has faced growing international opprobrium for the centers that U.N. experts describe as detention centers holding more than one million Uighurs and other Muslims. Beijing has said the measures are needed to stem the threat of Islamist militancy.

Le, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council, said Xinjiang authorities had taken measures to crack down on “violent terrorist crimes” and adopt “deradicalisation measures”. There had been no violent terrorism for the last 27 months, he added.

“As the counter-terrorism situation improves, the training program will be gradually downsized, leading to its completion.

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