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PARIS: China’s Foreign Minister defended the detention camps in Xinjiang and Hong Kong’s new security law on Sunday (August 30), ignoring the human rights concerns of European countries and warning against interference in the Chinese affairs.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on his first European tour since the virus pandemic broke out, seeking to reactivate trade and relations strained by the resulting global health and economic crisis.
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Speaking in Paris on Sunday, Wang reiterated the claim that all those sent to re-education centers in Xinjiang have been released and have jobs, even as human rights groups and families report the continued detentions of Uighur Muslims and the loss contact with loved ones.
“The rights of all students in the education and training program, although their minds have been invaded by terrorism and extremism, have been fully guaranteed,” he said at a conference at the French Institute of International Relations. “Now everyone has graduated, there is no one in the education and training center. They have all found work ”.
It is estimated that the Chinese government has detained a million or more members of ethnic Turkish minorities in Xinjiang, keeping them in internment camps and prisons where they are subjected to ideological discipline, forced to denounce their religion and language and physically abused. China has long suspected that the Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, harbor separatist tendencies due to their different culture, language and religion.
When asked about Hong Kong’s security law, Wang said: “We certainly couldn’t stand idly by and let the chaos continue, so we enacted a law that maintains national security that is specifically tailored to the situation in Hong Kong. Kong “.
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The law is seen by many as Beijing’s boldest move to break down the legal barriers between Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous territory and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.
Wang called both matters China’s internal affairs and said foreign powers should not interfere.
In a meeting with Wang on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “his grave concern about the situation in Hong Kong and human rights, particularly Uighurs, and the need for China to respect its international commitments,” according to the Macron’s office.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed similar concerns, as did officials on other stages of Wang’s Europe trip, which includes Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany.
His visit also included discussions on trade, combating climate change and other topics on which Europe depends on China due to its enormous global influence.
