China has admonished Britain to “immediately right its wrong moves” after UK’s MPs voted to declare that;China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province.
In a statement, China’s embassy in the UK, condemned the declaration,;accusing MPs of having “cooked up” the motion in order to discredit China”.
“The unwarranted accusation by a handful of British MPs;that there is ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang is the most preposterous lie of the century,;an outrageous insult and affront to the Chinese people, and a gross breach of international law;and the basic norms governing international relations.
“China strongly opposes the UK’s blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin also criticized the behavior as a double standard at a press conference.
“While some people in the UK have the audacity to spread lies and false information in smearing;and attacking the human rights of other countries, they have no courage to face up to;and solve their own human rights problems.”
Also addressing the issue, Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies intimated that the vote is of no surprise.
“It’s no more than another trick of the British parliament to manipulate public opinion and defame China regardless of facts.
“There are some conservatives and anti-China forces in parliament who have been constantly attacking China in the form of reports, bills or votes in the past few years”.
China’s treatment of Uyghurs is genocide
Earlier, British MPs joined the United States, Canada and the Netherlands in condemning and declaring Beijing’s actions against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as genocide.
Following a debate, the House of Commons, the democratically elected house of the UK Parliament, passed unopposed a non-binding resolution condemning “mass human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang region.”
Experts say the motion does not compel the government to act but is likely to mark a further decline in relations with China.
Introducing the motion, Conservative lawmaker, Nusrat Ghani told lawmakers that “while we must never misuse the term genocide, we must not fail to use it when it’s warranted.”
“Our government is handcuffed, paralyzed by the United Nations. We need to take back control. Our route to tackling genocide cannot be controlled by China.”
Britain’s Asia minister, Nigel Adams, also admitted there was credible evidence of widespread use of forced labour, internment camps, and the targeting of ethnic groups.
The actions, he said, amounted to clear and systematic abuse of human rights. However, Adams noted the UK’s longstanding position was that determining genocide is for “competent national and international courts”.
Labour lawmaker, Yasmin Qureshi, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China UK, posited that the “vote must mark a turning point.”
“No one can still deny the scale of the abuses taking place in the Xinjiang region. That this government is pursuing deeper trade ties with China while these abuses continue is unthinkable.”
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