- China’s ambassador to Australia has warned Canberra against following other countries in imposing sanctions over human rights abuses in Xinjiang
- Cheng Jingye said China had expressed its opposition to the punitive measures, which he described as “a flagrant violation of international laws”
- However, Wednesday’s event was denounced as “a cheap propaganda stunt” by human rights groups
- Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have imposed sanctions against certain Chinese officials, but Australia has not yet followed suit
- It’s estimated that around one million Uyghurs have been held at what the CCP calls “re-education camps” over the past 10 years
China’s ambassador to Australia has warned Canberra against following other countries in imposing sanctions over human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Cheng Jingye said China had expressed its opposition to the punitive measures, which he described as “a flagrant violation of international laws.”
“Any country should not have any illusion that China will swallow the bitter pill of interfering or meddling in China’s internal affairs,” he said.
“We will not provoke but if we are provoked, we will respond in kind.”
The event, which was an attempt by Beijing to push back on what many western countries have classified as genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, featured highly choreographed videos and testimony from Xinjiang residents which human rights groups denounced as “a cheap propaganda stunt.”
Sophie McNeill, a former journalist and current researcher at Human Rights Watch Australia, said the embassy event was a “clumsy attempt by Beijing to cover up the truth.”
“It’s important to note that people in Xinjiang are regularly coerced by authorities to appear as part of these disinformation efforts,” she added.
“We have no way of knowing if the women featured appeared of their own free will or what threats might have been made against them if they didn’t speak as instructed.”
Last month, Australia and New Zealand jointly expressed “grave concerns” over what many senior politicians labelled “credible reports” of severe human rights violations.
It followed targeted sanctions that were imposed by Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union against certain Chinese officials.
Earlier this year, the BBC published a report on Xinjiang that included a rare testimony from a former prison guard as well as first-hand accounts from several now-released detainees.
Tursunay Ziawudun, a Uyghur woman who fled to Kazakhstan before moving to the U.S., spent nine months in detention. She said she was tortured and raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.
“They had an electric stick, I didn’t know what it was, and it was pushed inside my genital tract, torturing me with an electric shock,” she said.
Another, Sayragul Sauytbay, who worked as a Chinese language teacher at one of the camps, described one incident where a young girl of only 20 or 21 was brought before roughly 100 other detainees to make a forced confession.
“After that, in front of everyone, the police took turns to rape her,” she recounted.
It’s estimated that around one million Uyghurs have been held at what the CCP calls “re-education camps” over the past 10 years, claiming the facilities are necessary to combat terrorism after isolated acts of violence took place between 2011 and 2014.