The country denounced an “interference” after the vote by French deputies of a non-binding text denouncing the Chinese genocidal policy against the Turkish-speaking minority.
China said on Friday January 21 “firmly opposedto the resolution adopted the day before by the French National Assembly, which described as “genocide» Chinese authorities’ treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority. Mostly Sunni Muslims, the Uighurs are the main ethnic group in Xinjiang (northwest China), a semi-desert region long scarred by attacks.
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French deputies adopted a non-binding resolution on Thursday stating that the National Assembly “officially recognizes the violence perpetrated by the authorities of the People’s Republic of China against the Uighurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide», and that she «sentenced“. The text “calls on the French governmentto do the same.
“The resolution of the French National Assembly (…) ignores reality and common sense in matters of lawsaid Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “This constitutes gross interference in China’s internal affairs. China is firmly against it.“, he underlined during a regular press conference.
A qualifier regularly used by Westerners
Xinjiang has long been hit by bloody attacks attributed to Islamists or Uighur separatists. The region has been the subject of a drastic surveillance policy for several years. Western studies, based on interpretations of official documents, testimonies of alleged victims and statistical extrapolations, accuse Beijing of having interned in “camps“at least one million people, mostly Uighurs, to perform sterilizations and abortions”strengths» or even to impose «forced labor“.
China denies these accusations and presents the “camps” like the “vocational training centersintended to keep residents away from religious extremism. They would now be closed because all the “students“would have”completed their training“. Before the French National Assembly, the deputies of several Western countries (Belgium, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada) had described as “genocide» China’s treatment of Uighurs. The US administration also uses the same qualifier.