British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab accused China of committing "shocking, serious human rights abuses" against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, a vast region in northwest China, on Sunday . "It is clear that there are serious, shocking human rights abuses," Dominic Raab told the BBC. "It's deeply, deeply shocking."
Regarding information referring to "forced sterilization" or "re-education camps", he stressed that it "recalled something that we have not seen for a very long time, and that from a member of the forefront of the international community that wants to be taken seriously. ”
Increasingly intense tensions
"We want a serious relationship (with China) but we cannot see such behavior and not denounce it," he added. Experts and human rights organizations accuse Beijing of having interned up to a million Muslims, mainly of Uighur ethnicity, in camps in the region in the name of the fight against terrorism, which the China denies.
These statements by the British diplomat come as relations between London and Beijing have been severely strained since the imposition by China of its national security law in Hong Kong and the exclusion by the United Kingdom of the Chinese giant Huawei of its 5G network, after months of pressure from Washington.
China shows its fist too
Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming warned on the BBC that Beijing would "resolutely" respond if London imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over Xinjiang, as happened with the United States.
On July 10, China announced reprisals against Washington, following American sanctions against several Chinese leaders accused of suppressing the Uighur Muslim minority.
Hong Kong also in the viewfinder
Dominic Raab also said he would brief British lawmakers on Monday on "the additional measures" the United Kingdom intended to take regarding Hong Kong and the conclusions of a review of the extradition treaty with the territory.
The United Kingdom denounced as a manifest violation of "the autonomy of Hong Kong the national security law imposed by China on the former British colony, which provides for punishing separatist," terrorist "activities there, subversion and foreign interference.
In reaction, he has already promised to extend the rights to immigration, and eventually access to British citizenship, for millions of inhabitants of the territory, a measure denounced by Beijing as a "gross interference" in its Internal Affairs.
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