Last Update: February 10, 2023, 21:37 IST
Workers walk past a perimeter fence officially known as the Vocational Skills Education Center in Dabancheng, in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. File photo/Reuters
Human Rights Watch said that the EU and the UK “should investigate and impose sanctions on Tuniyaz and other top Chinese officials for their roles in crimes against humanity”.
The European Union faced criticism on Friday over planned meetings with the governor of China’s Xinjiang region during his visit to Brussels and London, which also sparked complaints in Britain.
Erkin Tuniyaz, who has been sanctioned by the United States over his treatment of Xinjiang’s Muslim Uyghur minority, is expected to travel to Europe later this month.
Human Rights Watch said that the EU and UK “should investigate and impose sanctions on Tuniyaz and other top Chinese officials for their roles in crimes against humanity”.
It added, “The UK and EU should not attend meetings with senior officials in Xinjiang so that China can cover up its atrocities in the Uyghur region.”
Both the EU and the UK have defended their potential meetings as an opportunity to express criticism of Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang.
EU spokesman Peter Stano said the bloc had been informed by the Chinese mission that a delegation led by the governor would visit Brussels in February.
He added that “at the request of the Chinese side, a meeting with officials of the diplomatic service in charge of EU-China relations and human rights will be permitted”.
“We see this as an opportunity to directly express the EU’s long-standing concerns over the human rights situation in Xinjiang,” Stano said.
British officials also made the same claim on Thursday that there would be possible meetings with Foreign Office representatives if Tuniaz made the trip.
Outraged lawmakers in London criticized the government’s response as “weak” and said it had scored a “propaganda coup” for Beijing.
European lawmakers also expressed their unease about the EU’s plans.
Two senior MEPs said in a statement: “While engagement with the People’s Republic of China is necessary in general, we strongly question the wisdom of meeting officially with anyone personally involved in the persecution of Uighurs. ”
Tuniaz has defended China’s “de-radicalization” policies in the country’s northwest, including the use of detention facilities.
He was sanctioned by the US in 2021, with the Treasury saying that “more than 1 million Uighurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups have been detained in Xinjiang” during his tenure.
A recent UN report found credible allegations of torture and forced labor there.
However, Beijing has long denied any such allegations, claiming that the United States and Western allies are using the issue as a “political tool”.
In 2021, the European Union blacklisted four other Chinese officials over the government’s actions in Xinjiang.
The move sparked retaliatory sanctions from Beijing that led to the European Parliament blocking approval of a landmark EU investment deal with Beijing.
read all Breaking News Here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)