Geneva: Chinese administration has rejected allegations of genocide, mass systematic rapes, forced abortions, forced labour, religious repression, destruction of historic Masjids, torture and forced sterilisation and detention of over 1 million Uyghur Muslim community in concentration camps.
As Western powers and Turkey voiced concerns and called for U.N access to the region of Xinjiang, Chinese authorities firmly denied all the allegations of abuses and said that the camps were to provide vocational training and counter-extremism.
After activists and U.N human rights experts said that more than 1 million Muslims are detained in camps in Xinjiang, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the U.N. Human Rights Council that it was taking counter-terrorism measures in accordance with the law and that Xinjiang “enjoyed social stability and sound development” after four years without any “terrorist case”.
He further stated, “There were 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, where people of all ethnic groups also enjoyed labour rights.” These basic facts show that there has never been so-called genocide, forced labour, or religious oppression in Xinjiang, Wang said.
“Such inflammatory accusations are fabricated out of ignorance and prejudice. They are simply malicious and politically driven hype and couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas said that “the arbitrary detention of ethnic minorities like the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or China’s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong” required attention. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said it expected transparency from China on the issue and called for protecting the rights of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.
Wang, however, invited U.N. scrutiny stating, “The door to Xinjiang is always open. People from many countries who have visited Xinjiang have learned the facts and the truth on the ground. China also welcomes the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang,” he said, referring to U.N. rights Chief Michelle Bachelet, whose office has been negotiating terms of access to the country.