Chinese envoy refutes human rights abuse allegations, dismisses drone footage of Xinjiang

On July 19, China's ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming dismissed recent drone footage from the Xinjiang region and denied allegations about human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the country. Xiaoming raised questions over the authenticity of the CCTV footage concern, which showed shackled and blindfolded prisoners herded on to trains and allegedly torture by Chinese authorities. 

In a televised interview with a leading British broadcaster, Xiaoming said, “I do not know where you get this videotape," adding, "sometimes you have a transfer of prisoners, in any country.”

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Further, on the live-streamed program, the Chinese ambassador insisted that Uighur people in China live in “peaceful and harmonious coexistence with other ethnic groups." His statements come as the CCTV clip, which first appeared in October 2019, recently started making rounds on the internet prompting debate about human rights abuse of ethnic minorities in China.   

A report claimed that an estimated one million to two million Uighurs Muslims have been confined in "re-education camps" in China's Xinjiang province.

Only last month, a New York-based news agency reported that China was engaging in a "sweeping campaign of forced birth control and sterilisation on Uighurs and other minorities”. The report stressed that the abuses were far more widespread and systematic than was previously known, having described the scenario as ‘demographic genocide.’

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"The reports of forced sterilization to the re-education camps are reminiscent of something we have not seen for a long, long time. And this is from a leading member of the international community, who wants to be taken seriously" said Dominic Raab, UK’s Foreign Secretary, in a televised show. 

UK’s Foreign Secretary accuses China

In another television show that aired worldwide, UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused China of human rights abuses and called it out for “committing gross, egregious human rights abuses in Xinjiang”.

In response to Raab’s statement, China warned that it will deliver a “resolute response” in case Britain sanctioned officials involved in the alleged human rights abuses of the Uighur population.

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