Frontier Services Group (FSG), a Hong Kong-based company which specializes in providing security, logistics and insurance for businesses operating in hostile environments, made the announcement in a Chinese-language news release posted to its website.
The release, which provided few details about the training center itself, detailed a handful of deals announced between local authorities and CITIC, a massive Chinese conglomerate that is the biggest stakeholder in FSG. The release has since been pulled from FSG’s homepage, though a cached version remains viewable.
A spokesperson for Prince and FSG told CNN that the former US Navy SEAL, who is the brother of US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, “had no knowledge or involvement whatsoever with this preliminary memorandum regarding the company’s activity in Xinjiang.”
“Any potential investment of this nature would require the knowledge and input of each FSG Board member and a formal Board resolution,” the spokesperson said.
FSG’s announcement comes amid international outcry about China’s treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang is home to the predominately Muslim Uyghurs, who are ethnically distinct from the country’s majority ethnic group, the Han Chinese. Uyghurs form the majority in Xinjiang, where they account for just under half of the total population.
China has repeatedly denied it is imprisoning or re-educating Uyghurs in Xinjiang, instead saying that it is undertaking voluntary vocational training as part of an anti-extremism program.
“None of our men are armed. We do logistics, we deliver groceries — including frozen groceries — from Cape Town and Durban all the way up to through Democratic Republic of Congo. We do aviation out of Malta. And we’re the biggest medivac provider for the UN,” he said.