CHONGQING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scholars have refuted overseas falsehoods on the population policy and human rights in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"With sustained economic development, a harmonious and stable society, and a peaceful and joyful life enjoyed by residents, Xinjiang is now in its best period of prosperity and development," said Zulhayat Esmayil, dean of the School of Marxism at Xinjiang University at a seminar held both online and offline in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Thursday.

The meeting was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva, other international organizations in Switzerland, and the China Society for Human Rights Studies. The attendees included scholars from Xinjiang University and Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

Xinjiang has realized a smooth growth in its population and remarkable improvements in people's health and education, Zulhayat Esmayil said.

"These are hard proofs of the protection and progress of the human rights of residents from different ethnic groups, and this is the most powerful counterattack to the vicious smearing of Xinjiang by some Western politicians and so-called scholars," Zulhayat Esmayil said.

Fu Zitang, president of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that the achievements in population development and human rights protection in Xinjiang have been widely recognized and those unreasonable and groundless reports cooked up by overseas "anti-China" scholars must be refuted.

"The population policy carried out in Xinjiang is in line with the reality of the social development of the region, and the huge progress that has taken place in the region is visible to all," said Xiadiya Yiblayan, a professor at Xinjiang University at the meeting.