Beijing sells troubled Xinjiang as a winter sports paradise

BEIJING: China's vast region of Xinjiang has hit the headlines as a centre of massive alleged human rights abuses, but Beijing is keen it gets recognition for another reason - as a top winter sports destination.

As host of this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, China's Communist leadership has declared hopes of transforming its nascent winter sports industry into a US$157 billion powerhouse, and the troubled region of Xinjiang has been given a starring role.

The ballooning sports industry contrasts heavily with claims by rights groups that more than one million people in Xinjiang have been detained in internment camps and forced labour.

Beijing has denied all allegations of abuse in Xinjiang - which the United States and several Western parliaments have called a "genocide" - and has said such critics are "politicising" sport.

A deluge of state media reports has declared "a ski fever" is taking hold in Xinjiang, while wealthy young urbanites snap selfies with expensive ski gear in front of the region's snow-capped mountains.

The number of domestic ski resorts have quadrupled since Beijing won its 2015 bid to host the Winter Games, with Xinjiang alone home to 72 resorts.

State media has produced waves of reports showcasing remote villagers on the ice, as well as tear-jerking profiles of young athletes from the region's ethnic minorities.

In one video, a vlogger from the Uyghur ethnic minority toured a "happy and exciting" novelty snow park in a desert region of southern Xinjiang.

A young Uyghur cross-country skier was even chosen to be a final torchbearer in Friday's opening ceremony - a clear political choice from a leadership that minutely choreographs its image on the world stage.

"China's policy of vigorously developing ice and