Boris Johnson’s government on Friday called on China to allow the United Nations unrestricted access to Xinjiang after what it called “serious concerns about China’s policies against Uighur Muslims” in the region.
Tariq Ahmad, Foreign Minister for South Asia and the Commonwealth, said in a statement on China at the UN Human Rights Council that there is “compelling evidence of systemic human rights violations in Xinjiang.”
On Hong Kong, Ahmad described the UK’s deep concern about the “direct threat” allegedly posed by Beijing’s new National Security Law to rights and freedoms in the Special Administrative Region, the Foreign Ministry said.
Ahmad said: “(Of) great concern, in Xinjiang, there is strong evidence, including from the Chinese authorities’ own documents, of systematic human rights violations. Culture and religion are severely restricted and we have seen credible reports of forced labor and forced birth control. Surprisingly, up to 1.8 million people have been detained without trial ”.
He added: “Across the country, we also remain very concerned about the pressure on media freedom … (We) call on China to uphold the rights and freedoms in the Joint Declaration, to respect the independence of the judiciary. Hong Kong, allowing unrestricted access to Xinjiang and releasing all arbitrarily detained.
Ahmad said that Beijing’s imposition of the National Security Law amounts to a serious violation of the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration, which allegedly violates Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and directly threatens rights and freedoms.
“The National Security Law is being implemented with the apparent intention of eliminating dissent. It allows the prosecution of certain cases in mainland China, a jurisdiction where defendants are often detained for long periods without charge or access to a lawyer, and where we have concerns about judicial independence, due process and reports of torture. ” he told the council. .
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