Beijing: anti-China forces are criticising Uighur crackdown

Foreign media accused of defaming Chinese anti-terror efforts

Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China's Xinjiang region in 2017. AP

China is blaming "anti-China forces" for the growing criticism of Beijing's policies in a far western region where large groups of ethnic Uighurs are being detained in internment camps.

The foreign ministry said on Tuesday anti-China forces had made false accusations against China for political purposes after a UN human rights committee raised concern over reported mass detentions of ethnic Uighurs.

The ministry said a few foreign media outlets were distorting their reports and defaming China's efforts in anti-terrorism and crime-fighting in the Xinjiang region.

A UN committee member last week cited estimates that over a million people in China from the country's Uighur and other Muslim minorities are being held in "counter-extremism centers" and another two million have been forced into "re-education camps".

The US mission to the UN said on Twitter that it was "deeply troubled by reports of an ongoing crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in China".

"We call on China to end their counterproductive policies and free all of those who have been arbitrarily detained,” it said.

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