Chinese ambassador confronted on live television with Uighur prisoner footage
London: China's Ambassador to the UK says he cannot rule out cases of Uighur women being sterilised in Xinjiang province, after being confronted with footage of blindfolded and handcuffed prisoners being herded onto trains in Xinjiang province on live television.
Liu Xiaoming appeared on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, to warn Britain that it would face a "resolute response" if it followed in the footsteps of the United States in sanctioning Chinese Communist Party officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang where more than one million Uighurs are thought to be imprisoned in re-education camps.
On his BBC program, host Marr played the drone footage, which has been widely shared online for almost a year and asked Xiaoming: "Can you tell us what is happening here?"
Xiaoming at first declined to answer the question, contending that Xinjiang was "the most beautiful place in Xinjiang" instead.
But after being repeatedly being questioned, he tried to imply that the footage – which has been independently verified – was fake.
"There’s no such a concentration camp in Xinjiang," he said. "People in Xinjiang enjoy a happy life."
"The so-called Western intelligence keep making this fake accusation against China," he said.
But when pressed, he conceded the footage could be showing the transfer of prisoners and could not rule out "single cases" of Uighur women being forced to have abortions or be sterilised.
"First of all, there’s no so-called pervasive massive forced sterilisation among Uighur people in China … but I cannot rule out, you know, single cases for any country," the Ambassador said.
"You know, sometimes you have a transfer of prisons and prisoners, you know, in any country."
Researchers have claimed Beijing is conducting "demographic genocide" of the Uighurs citing and 84 per cent drop in birth rates among women in Uighur provinces.
Alicia Kearns, a newly elected MP who formerly worked in the foreign office for the global coalition fighting Islamic State, said the Ambassador had "reeled out a tired farce" and said an international inquiry was needed into China's human rights abuses.
"His interview was full of veiled threats and transparent denials, which left viewers in no doubt that he was dancing around the truth," Kearns told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
"The Chinese Government has industrialised its genocide against the Uighur people – the world has woken up too late, but it now must unite to do all it can.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/chinese-ambassador-confronted-on-live-television-with-uighur-prisoner-footage-20200720-p55dij.html