British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
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George Cracknell Wright / LNP / Shutterstock / SIPA
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab has urged Beijing to accept that international UN observers can visit China to see the plight of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region.
Denouncing the Chinese regime's "barbarism" towards Uyghurs, the UK this week took action to prevent goods related to the alleged forced labor of this minority from reaching UK consumers.
Faced with accusations of re-education camps, forced labor, torture and sterilization, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun, denounced London's interference in China's “internal affairs” and a “purely political attack”.
The fate inflicted on the Uyghurs is "absolutely shameful, revolting, shocking," Dominic Raab said on Sky News on Sunday.
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If China disputes the charges against it, there is a "simple way" to shed light, he continued: "Allow the UN commissioner on human rights to visit and have access to these sites.
"We are campaigning for an authoritative third party, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to make this visit," insisted the British foreign minister.
As to whether what Uyghurs are undergoing should be qualified as "genocide", it is for "justice" to determine, he said.
"And frankly, we shouldn't be engaging in free trade negotiations with countries that violate human rights well below the genocide line," he added on the BBC, implicitly aiming the agreement in principle on investments between China and the European Union, which the United Kingdom has left.
According to foreign experts, more than a million Uyghurs are in detention in political re-education camps.
Beijing denies and claims that these are vocational training centers intended to distance them from terrorism and separatism after attacks attributed to Uyghurs.
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