Upcoming UN meet on Uyghur crackdown upsets China

Fuming over an upcoming UN video conference on Beijing's crackdown on the Uyghur Muslims, China has called on members of the United Nations not to attend the event, saying it "is based on sheer lies and political bias".

Address a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Monday said "The US, rallying a handful of countries like the UK and Germany, plans to hold the so-called virtual meeting on Xinjiang and falsely calls it a sideline event of the UN."

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination. However, Beijing continues to deny all accusations.

Launching an attack on the US and its allies, Chunying said that "The US and the few countries it has assembled are abusing the resources and platform of the UN to smear and attack China to serve selfish political interests. This is a shameful travesty of the UN."

Further slamming the US, the spokesperson said, "Some in the US take every opportunity to cite and play up so-called internal documents and reports to denigrate and smear China. However, facts and truth always prove that they are either the offender playing the defendant, or making vicious interpretations by taking words out of context or with the presumption of guilt, or spreading sheer lies."

So far, the US, Canada, Netherlands, and the UK have described the situation in Xinjiang as genocide, after reports of forced sterilisations and forced labour.

Last month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had said the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.

The latest HRW report draws on newly available data from Chinese government documents, other evidence to assess Beijing's actions in Xinjiang. The report had said that the Chinese leadership is responsible for widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offenses.

World Uyghur Congress's Zumretay Arkin said that these companies were "walking on eggshells" amid the rising calls for boycotts.

"These companies have really beautiful and strong statements about condemning human rights abuses on their websites but when it comes to implementing the policies they just freeze," said Arkin.

( With inputs from ANI )