NEW YORK – China yesterday urged the United States, Germany and Britain to cancel an upcoming videoconference on Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur Muslim minority, and called on other United Nations members not to attend the event.
At least one million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held at camps in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, according to rights groups, which accuse authorities of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
The videoconference, scheduled for tomorrow, “is based on sheer lies and political bias”, said China’s diplomatic mission to the UN in a statement.
Beijing “urges the co-sponsors to immediately cancel this event, which interferes in China’s internal affairs, and calls on other member states to reject the event”.
“The current situation in Xinjiang is at its best in history, with stability, rapid economic development and harmonious coexistence among people of all ethnic groups.”
In addition to the camps, millions more Muslims in the country allegedly live under a tough system of surveillance and controls.
The US recently declared that the treatment of Uighurs is “genocide”.
“The US claims to care about the human rights of Muslim people despite the world-known fact that the US has been killing Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” said the Chinese statement.
“It is the US and its followers that have killed the largest number of Muslims in the world.”
At the meeting tomorrow, the ambassadors to the UN from the US, Germany and Britain – who represent the Uighurs – are expected to speak, as well as civil society organisation Human Rights Watch, which is co-organising the event. – AFP, May 11, 2021
