China’s ambassador to the UK has rejected accusations of widespread human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims after being confronted with video footage, allegedly from the province of Xinjiang, showing blindfolded men waiting to be led onto trains.
Liu Xiaoming accused “so-called Western intelligence” of making repeated “false allegations” against China when he was shown the footage by the BBC’s Andrew Marr.
He suggested the video – widely circulated on social media in recent days and purporting to show hundreds of detained, bound and blindfolded Uighur Muslims – was “fake”.
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“There is no so-called massive forced sterilisation among Uighur people in China,” Mr Liu said.
“It is totally against the truth.”
The Chinese ambassador also insisted he did not know where the video had originated from.
It came as Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, accused Chinese officials of committing “gross, egregious” abuses in the northwestern Xinjiang province following multiple reports of human rights violations against the minority Uighur group.
“It is clear that there are gross, egregious human rights abuses going on. We are working with our international partners on this. It is deeply, deeply troubling,” Mr Raab told The Andrew Marr Show.
“The reports of the human aspect of it – from forced sterilisation to the education camps – are reminiscent of something we have not seen for a long, long time.”
He added: “This from a leading member of the international community that wants to be taken seriously and in fact who we want a positive relationship with. But we cannot see behaviour like that and not call it out.”
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, called on the government to use its new independent sanctions regime to target individuals implicated in human rights abuses in the province.
However, Mr Liu warned China would have a “resolute response” against any move by the UK to sanction officials involved in alleged abuses.
The dispute comes amid growing tensions between the UK and China on a number of issues, such as the use of Huawei in the UK’s 5G network and China’s control over Hong Kong.
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Earlier this month, the government announced plans to offer up to three million Hong Kong residents the chance to settle in the UK, paving the way for them to apply for citizenship, following the introduction of a strict and controversial national security law on the region.
China responded angrily to that move, warning the UK would “bear all consequences” if it proceeded with the offer.
On Monday, culture secretary Oliver Dowden told MPs that UK mobile providers would be banned from buying 5G equipment from the Chinese technology company Huawei amid concerns over the alleged security threat posed by the firm.
Additional reporting by PA
