The internment of members of the Uyghur minority in China is a practice "revolting and unacceptable", ruled Tuesday the French Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who also defended himself of any "discrimination" against from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. "This practice is revolting and unacceptable, and we strongly condemn it," said Le Maire, interviewed on Franceinfo on the forced internment of Uyghurs, a Muslim and Turkish-speaking minority in western China.
This question "must obviously be part of the discussion we are having with our Chinese partners", added the minister, who did not comment on the existence of possible imports into France of masks that would be manufactured in centers of forced internment in China.
Washington, like other Western capitals and human rights organizations, accuses China of interning at least one million Muslims in the Xinjiang region. China denies this figure and claims that they are vocational training centers, intended to help the population find jobs in order to distance them from the temptation of Islamist extremism.
No global ban on Huawei's 5G
The United States announced Monday to place eleven Chinese companies on a blacklist - which limits their access to American technologies and products - because they are "involved in human rights violations" linked to a " campaign of repression, mass incarceration, forced labor, involuntary collection of biometric data and genetic analyzes "targeting Uyghurs, according to the US Department of Commerce.
For his part, the head of British diplomacy Dominic Raab on Sunday accused China of committing "serious, shocking violations of human rights" against this minority.
VIDEO. China: Bruno Le Maire does not prohibit Huawei "from investing in 5G" but considers the repression of the Uyghurs "revolting" https://t.co/Qqk72kpRvb pic.twitter.com/jvKgl8kJcY
- franceinfo (@franceinfo) July 21, 2020Moreover, on access to the French 5G market, Le Maire said that “we are not prohibiting Huawei from investing in 5G. We protect our national security interests ”: French operators using it will receive time-limited authorizations. “There is no discrimination in France against any operator whatsoever. Moreover, Huawei today has almost 30% of the 4G market ”, recalled the Minister. “No global ban on Huawei in France, but the defense of our national security interests”, he summed up.
"We can strengthen our economic and financial cooperation as we are doing and have a very clear discourse on political issues," said Bruno Le Maire during a telephone press briefing with several journalists.
The relationship between France and the EU on the one hand, and China on the other, consists of "speaking very firmly on a certain number of subjects" and at the same time "developing our economic and financial relations. . I think the two are not at all contradictory, ”he added as France obtained better access to the Chinese market for certain livestock products and some major players in the financial sector.
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