Chinese official in Xinjiang slams UK genocide declaration

A spokesperson for China's Xinjiang region has called accusations of genocide totally groundless as Beijing came under more pressure this week over its treatment of the Uyghur ethnic group

URUMQI, China -- A spokesperson for the Xinjiang region called accusations of genocide “counter to the facts” as China came under more pressure this week over its treatment of the Uyghur ethnic group in the remote border area. The British Parliament approved a nonbinding motion Thursday that said China’s policies amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Human Right Watch appealed to the U.N. earlier in the week to investigate the allegations of crimes against humanity. “The motion adopted by the British side was totally groundless,” Xu Guixiang, the deputy director-general of the Communist Party’s publicity department in Xinjiang, said Friday. “The decision was made on the basis of remarks by some politicians, some so-called academic institutes, some so-called experts and scholars and some so-called witnesses.” In recent years, an estimated 1 million people or more have been confined in camps in Xinjiang, according to foreign governments and researchers. Most are Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group, Authorities have been accused of imposing forced labor, systematic forced birth control and torture.