Beijing Blasts 'Uyghur Tribunal' Investigating Human Rights in Xinjiang 

WASHINGTON - China is criticizing a process called the “Uyghur Tribunal,” a quasi-judicial effort by opponents of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities designed to publicize evidence of alleged human rights abuses. 

At a September 9 news conference in Beijing, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that “no matter how many ‘actors or actresses’ it recruits and how many ‘hearings’ it arranges, it is nothing but a kangaroo court and a futile attempt.”    “It has nothing to do with law, justice or truth, and is just another farce staged to smear and attack Xinjiang,” Zhao told the press, calling the tribunal members clowns.   The “tribunal” heard from 38 witnesses in its first round of hearings in June in Church House, London. That event focused on alleged rights abuses in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang. The second set of hearings is scheduled from September 10 to 13, according to the organizers.