U.K. urges China to grant UN access to Xinjiang

Britain’s government on Sunday pressed China to allow UN rights inspectors to visit Xinjiang after raising anew allegations of “appalling” human rights abuses against the Uighur minority people.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week introduced import controls on firms that may have sourced goods from the region in northwest China using forced labour from the mainly Muslim Uighur community.

Speaking on the BBC, he decried reports of “slave labour effectively, forced sterilisation, appalling human rights abuses”.

“Whether or not it amounts to genocide has to be determined by a court. The bar has been set incredibly high,” Mr. Raab said.

“And frankly we shouldn’t be engaged in free-trade negotiations with countries abusing human rights well below the limit of genocide,” he added, implicitly attacking the European Union for securing an investment pact with China last month.

Mr. Raab’s government opposes efforts underway in Parliament to give U.K. courts the power to declare a genocide in Xinjiang, which would bar the government from proceeding with any free-trade agreement with China.