Hundreds of people on Tuesday gathered outside the Chinese consulate in Adelaide to protest against human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Social media users shared videos and photos of fiery visuals outside the newly-constructed Chinese consulate here, where people chanted slogans and raised East Turkestan flags.
Adelaide houses the largest Uyghur population in Australia, which has raised fears of Chinese spying.
Several people have protested against the opening of the Chinese consulate due to national security fears.
"China's new bloated consulate in Adelaide poses a clear security threat to our naval shipbuilding projects and SA based defence industries. It should never have been opened and must be closed. Australia's national security has to come first," tweeted Rex Patrick, an Independent Senator from South Australia.
China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims. They have been accused of 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 human rights abuses in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community.
Since 2017, a massive political 'reeducation' campaign against Uyghurs and other groups have been carried out by the government in Xinjiang, with scholars estimating that over a million people detained in camps, some transferred to prison and others pressured to work in factories, according to a report from Washington Post.
Last week, the United States, the UK and Canada had slammed China for human rights violations and abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang."We, the Foreign Ministers of Canada and the United Kingdom, and the United States Secretary of State, are united in our deep and ongoing concern regarding China's human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang," stated a joint statement released by the US State Department.
The ministers took coordinated action on measures, in parallel to measures by the European Union, in a bid to send a clear message about the human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang.
The massive human rights violation against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang has become a key point of discussion in the international community.
( With inputs from ANI )
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