China fumes over reports on atrocities against Uyghurs, retaliates after UK revokes license for CGTN

Retaliating to the United Kingdom's move to revoke the broadcasting license for China Global Television Network (CGTN), the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that "BBC has made some false reports" on human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Speaking at the regular press briefing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, "I want to say that this is not the first time that the BBC has made some false reports on Xinjiang, and each time we refuted the false claim and cleared out the situation."

While calling the reports on Xinjiang as "baseless vilification of China", he denied the presence of any "re-educational camps in the region".

"The BBC report on alleged abuses of women's rights in Xinjiang has no factual basis at all. There are simply no 're-education camps'. Some of the interviewees in previous reports turned out to be actors spreading false information," he added.

In a later press conference, the Spokesperson criticised US researcher Adrian Zenz for saying that the recent reports have proved the ongoing human rights violation in Xinjiang.

There are too many lies and rumours that have defamed Xinjiang recently, and the names of the "BBC and Adrian Zenz" have frequently appeared, Wang added.

This comes following the UK regulators revoking the broadcasting license for CGTN. The regulators also rejected a proposal by CGTN to transfer the license to a new entity after finding that it would ultimately still be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and therefore disqualified under UK law.

According to Sputnik's report on Thursday, Ofcom said that it had conducted an investigation into the company's ownership structure and that CGTN's parent company was beholden to Beijing.

"Our investigation showed that the license for China Global Television Network is held by an entity which has no editorial control over its programmes. We are unable to approve the application to transfer the license to China Global Television Network Corporation because it is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, which is not permitted under UK broadcasting law," Ofcom said.

"We now consider it appropriate to withdraw the license for CGTN to broadcast in the UK," the agency said.

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report.

On January 27, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had stated that his opinions on the genocide committed against the Uyghurs by China have not changed.

President Joe Biden's nominee for UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the State Department was reviewing its designation of China's treatment of Uyghurs and other minority groups in the Xinjiang as "genocide."

Prior to this, during his confirmation hearings, Blinken had agreed with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's designation of the Chinese Communist Party as having participated in genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Sputnik reported.

( With inputs from ANI )