The Chinese ambassador to the UK was confronted about the treatment of the Uyghur people in north China in a fiery BBC exchange. This comes as new footage has emerged showing Uyghur people being bussed out of their region to work as forced labour in factories across the country, a new phase in China’s campaign to forcibly assimilate its Muslim minority. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming clashed with Andrew Marr when he was shown the disturbing drone video live on-air.
When asked to say what was happening in the footage, Mr Liu was silent before speaking about how the region Xinjiang was the “most beautiful” place.
Mr Marr snapped back, pointing at the video: “Ambassador, that is not beautiful coverage, is it?”
The Chinese diplomat said: “I don’t where you got this video tape.
“Sometimes you have a transfer of prisoners in any country.”
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The footage shows people kneeling down, blindfolded and shaven, before being led onto trains.
Mr Liu insisted he didn’t know what was happening in the clip and asked where it came from.
The BBC host stated that the tape had been authenticated by western intelligence agencies after going viral around the world.
Mr Liu defended his state: “The so-called western intellifence keep making these false accusations against China. People say we have ethnic cleansing but the population of Xinjiang has doubled in 40 years.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy has called for the new ‘Magnitsky Act’ legislation to be used against China.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab shut down his Labour counterpart’s urging as he explained why the sanctions couldn’t be used “willy-nilly”.
He dubbed the alleged treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority as “gross and egregious human rights abuses”.
More than a million of Uyghurs are reportedly currently being held in camps by the Chinese authorities.
The treatment has been compared to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.