Communist China denounced the European Parliament for a resolution on Uyghurs

 

On Tuesday, Beijing accused the European Parliament of hypocrisy after adopting a resolution calling for targeted sanctions against Chinese officials for treating the Uyghur minority.

China is facing international condemnations to detain one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in internment camps in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. After handing over the Sakharov Prize to the daughter of Uyghur Professor Ilham Tohti, MEPs said that China's human rights record had worsened over the past year and asked the Chinese government to "immediately end arbitrary detention without any accusation, trial or conviction. "

In response to the resolution, Beijing asked the European Parliament to "abandon their double counter-terrorism standards" and to stop "interfering in China's internal affairs". "The people of Xinjiang and the Chinese people have a greater right of speech (over the situation in Xinjiang) than those in far-off Europe who have never been to Xinjiang," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.

The EU increased pressure on Beijing due to the human rights violation in Xinjiang

The new EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has promised to push the 28 member states to strengthen their position on the treatment of the Uyghur minority population in China with legislation that would punish officials involved in human rights violations in Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million Muslims are detained.

"Nobody disputes the right of any country to take legitimate measures to combat terrorism and ensure security," Mr Borrell told the European Parliament. "But as far as we know, the policies applied in Xinjiang seem disproportionate to the stated goal of fighting terrorism and extremism." Mr Borrell also said that while the United States took action to impose sanctions on Chinese officials, "we have not done it; we have a different system [in the EU]. I am trying to improve [the European system] by starting a an initiative that could allow us to pass something equivalent to the Magnitsky Act. I need unanimity in the Council to do such a thing. I will fight for it. "