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The editor-in-chief of one of China’s state-owned newspapers has accused Australia of committing genocide in the wake of criticism over alleged human rights violations.
The Chinese government has been under intense scrutiny from human rights groups over the treatment of the Uyghur population in the region of Xinjiang, which borders Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia in the country’s northwest.
Hu Xijin, of the tabloid Global Times, took fire in a tweet overnight suggesting Australia and the US were showing hypocrisy in their condemnation of the Asian superpower due to their historic treatment of indigenous peoples.
“What’s genocide? Massacring native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, forcing people colonised to speak English, French, Spanish, transforming their way of life, these are genocide, right?” he wrote.
The Global Times is under the umbrella of the Chinese Communist Party run newspaper the People’s Daily, the official publication of the country’s Central Committee.
It has been labelled in some quarters as ‘China’s Fox News’ due to its penchant for propaganda.
This week a report by 50 experts in international law and genocide ruled China’s alleged activity in Xinjiang violated every provision of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention.
The report, released on Tuesday by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy think tank, claimed the Chinese government “bears state responsibility for an ongoing genocide against the Uyghur in breach of the (UN) Genocide Convention”.
Thee US State Department estimates up to two million Uyghurs – a Muslim minority native to Xinjiang – are believed to have been placed in detention centres.
Former detainees allege they were subjected to indoctrination, sexually abused and even forcibly sterilised while in the camps.
“This is a major global power, the leadership of which are the architects of a genocide,” Azeem Ibrahim, director of special initiatives at Newlines, said.
China denies the allegations, saying the centres are intended to prevent religious extremism and terrorism.
On March 7 its Foreign Minister Wang Yi called the claims of human rights abuse “preposterous” and urged people to visit Xinjiang to see for themselves.
“We welcome more people to visit Xinjiang. Seeing is believing and lies will collapse on themselves,” Wang said, in an article published by the Global Times.
Following Mr Yi’s comments his Australian counterpart Marise Payne vowed to maintain pressure on China and said she stood by criticism of the Uyghurs’ treatment.
“Evidence that points to the use of forced labour, the use of forced sterilisation, the systemic, systematic abuse of and torture of women and a range of other actions are severe breaches of human rights,” she said.
“I do not believe in any way that they can be equated in the way that the foreign minister did.”
There are more than 12 million Uyghurs living in the province as of latest estimates.
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