Despite reports and testimonies of human rights violations emerging from Xinjiang and Hong Kong, China on Wednesday continued to deny the West's condemnation for Beijing's international actions.
China's remarks came hours after The European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States called out Beijing for its atrocities in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
"During the high-level segment, the UK, the European Union, Germany, the US, Canada and a few others abused the platform of Human Rights Council to make groundless accusations against China and interfere in China's internal affairs, which China strongly opposes and categorically rejects," Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu said while exercising the Right of Reply at the High-Level Segment at the 46th Human Rights Council.
China has claimed control over Tibet since 1950, with many critics such as exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama calling the control over the country a "cultural genocide."
"Turning a blind eye to facts, certain countries fabricated and spread lies about Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong in vicious vilification of China. Their acts, which go against justice and human conscience, have aroused strong indignation of the Chinese people," Chen claimed.
"Their attempts to smear China, undermine China's stability and contain China's development process will not go anywhere. What they have done has only fully exposed the fact that, for them, human rights are nothing but a tool for political mpulation," Chen added.
Hours before China's reply, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Biden administration would denounce the atrocities in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
The EU also demanded that China allow independent rights observers "mengful access" into the Xinjiang province to probe abuses, informed foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab called on the UN Human Rights Council on Monday to address the human rights violations in China stating that the international body does not "consistently" pinpoint areas of the prevalence of the most pressing human rights issues.
A British media outlet, earlier this month, carried a report that Uyghur women in China's Xinjiang region were subject to sexual assault. The report involved testimonies of women who have faced those atrocities in the 're-education' camps.
China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report.
Meanwhile, China imposed the draconian National Security Law in Hong Kong last year. The law criminalises secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces and carries with it strict prison terms. It came into effect from July 1. Since then, a number of former pro-democracy lawmakers have been arrested.
( With inputs from ANI )
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