Daily US Times: The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has accused China of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against Uighurs – its minority Muslim population – and said sanctions against those responsible cannot be ruled out.
Mr Raab told the BBC that reports of wider persecution and forced sterilisation of the Muslim group were “reminiscent of something not seen for a long time”.
The UK would work with its allies to take appropriate action against human rights abuses against Uighurs, he added.
China’s UK ambassador Liu Xiaoming denied the accusation saying talk of concentration camps was “fake”.
The ambassador told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the Uighurs received the same treatment under the law as other ethnic groups in his country.
Leaked drone footage appears to show Uighurs being blindfolded and led to trains. The footage has been authenticated by Australian security services. Mr Xiaoming said he “did not know” what the video was showing and “sometimes you have a transfer of prisoners, in any country”.
Liu Xiaoming said: “There is no such concentration camps in Xinjiang. There’s a lot of fake accusations against China.”
It is believed that up to a million ethnic Muslim Uighur people have been detained over the past few years in what the Chinese state defines as “re-education camps”.
China previously denied the existence of the camps, but later defending them as a necessary measure against terrorism, following separatist violence in the Xinjiang region.
The authorities have recently been accused of forcing women to be fitted with contraceptive devices or sterilised in an apparent attempt to limit the population, prompting calls for the United Nations to investigate.
Asked whether the treatment of the Uighurs met the legal definition of genocide, the British Foreign Secretary said the international community had to be “careful” before making such claims.
But he said: “Whatever the legal label, it is clear that gross, egregious human rights abuses are going on.”
“It is deeply, deeply troubling and the reports on the human aspect of this – from forced sterilisation to the education camps – are reminiscent of something we have not seen for a very long time.”
There are growing calls for the UK to impose sanctions, such as travel bans and asset freezes, on Chinese officials responsible for the persecution of the Uighurs.
A petition backing the move has amassed more than 100,000 signatures, meaning it will be considered for debate in Parliament.
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