China: Uighurs

(asked on 8th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to help tackle human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim population in China.


Answered by
Nigel Adams Portrait
Nigel Adams
This question was answered on 15th June 2021

We have serious concerns about the gross violation of human rights occurring in Xinjiang, including the extra-judicial detention of over a million Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in 'political re-education camps'; systematic restrictions on Uyghur culture and the practice of Islam; and extensive and invasive surveillance targeting minorities.

The UK Government has led international efforts to hold China to account. We led the first two statements on Xinjiang at the UN and have utilised our diplomatic network to raise the issue up the international agenda. In January, we announced a package of measures to help ensure no UK organisation is complicit in human rights violations in China, and in March we imposed asset freezes and travel bans against four senior Chinese government officials and one entity, alongside the EU, US and Canada. The Foreign Secretary has raised the UK's serious concerns directly with Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi on a number of occasions, most recently on 27 May, and has repeatedly called for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, or another UN expert to be allowed unfettered access to Xinjiang.

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