Labour camps are a UK lie, says Beijing
China hits back as senior Tories call for sanctions
CHINA launched a diplomatic war of words with Britain yesterday by accusing ministers of peddling lies about human rights abuses.
The comments were made by foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who added that Beijing will ‘take all necessary measures to defend national interests’.
Senior Tories have now called for a ‘reset’ in policy towards the Communist state. The diplomatic storm began when Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused China of ‘ barbarism’ in the remote northeastern province of Xinjiang and vowed to crack down on forced labour camps.
Mr Lijian hit back, saying: ‘Individual countries including the UK have funded, concocted and deliberately spread lies and rumours to smear and discredit China on the pretext of socalled human rights issues.
‘It fully exposes their hypocrisy and sinister intentions to curb the development and progress of Xinjiang and interfere in China’s internal affairs.’
It came as the Conservative Human Rights Commission published an excoriating report that documented evidence of abuse ranging from torture to slavery against China’s Uighur Muslim minority group.
The report was endorsed by two former Conservative foreign secretaries, Lord Hague and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who called for a ‘reset’ in UK policy towards
China, including sanctions against Beijing officials responsible for human rights abuses. The commission said it had received evidence detailing widespread use of torture, forced organ harvesting, slavery and the establishment of an ‘Orwellian surveillance state’.
Its report, entitled The Darkness Deepens, said the evidence ‘detailed a severe deterioration from the already very serious human rights situation four years ago’. It said experts were increasingly pointing to indicators of ‘genocide’ against Uighurs. Dr Yang Jianli, an exiled dissident, told the commission that China had been turned into a ‘virtual gulag’.
One of the report’s chapters documented how major British and international firms are accused of getting supplies from factories using forced labour.
The commission said it was ‘gravely concerned’ that modern slavery practices were endemic in the supply chains of major British and international companies. The report noted that it was ‘ beyond dispute that UK consumption is driving this practice [of state- sponsored slavery]. This can no longer be tolerated’.
The 87-page report also said Chinese president Xi Jinping was pushing for a ‘ dystopian digital surveillance state’. In a separate article for Conservative Home, Sir Malcolm accused China of attempted ‘cultural genocide’ and said the UK must take a tougher approach, including sanctions.
Citing a ‘catalogue of horrors’ revealed in the report, he said: ‘Now more than any time there’s a need to stand up to Xi Jinping’s brutal regime in China.’ The UK needed to impose sanctions against key officials in the Chinese and Hong Kong regimes and called for a global response to Beijing’s ‘belligerence, inhumanity and mendacity’.
Human Rights Watch also hit out at China, saying it was in the midst of its darkest period for human rights since the Tiananmen Square massacre.
‘Serious human rights issues’