China rejects UK report on its human rights abuses

LONDON: Beijing has rejected the recently released report by the British Foreign Office which details the deteriorating human rights situation in China.

"China has always been committed to promoting and protecting the human rights and basic freedoms of its people, and has made great progress in the human rights cause, which is a fact acknowledged by anyone free of prejudice," the Chinese Embassy in Britain said, in response to the report.

The Chinese embassy said that affairs related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet are all China's internal affairs.

In a report titled, "Human Rights and Democracy,", the British foreign office said the human rights situation in China continued to deteriorate in 2021, and "widespread, systematic human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang grew.

"Extensive restrictions continued to be imposed on media freedom, freedom of religion or belief and rule of law.

Restrictions on LGBT+ and gender rights also persisted, as did those impeding civil society from operating freely," the report said.

In Hong Kong, the British foreign office said civil liberties have been curtailed, particularly freedom of speech.

The British government said China's authorities continued to pursue policies that violated human rights, including the extra-judicial detention of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in political reeducation camps.

"Further credible and compelling evidence emerged of invasive surveillance of minorities, forced labour, and forced birth control," the report added.

The British foreign office reported that in 2021, China's authorities continued the implementation of advanced technologies in ways which violated human rights.

"Mass surveillance and 'predictive policing' algorithms were used to enable repression in Xinjiang. Media reporting indicated the use of similar technologies elsewhere in China, such as software to track 'suspicious people', facial recognition software targeting specific ethnicities, and social media analysis to monitor Chinese citizens living overseas," the human rights report said.

In response to COVID-19, the Chinese authorities have increased surveillance, monitoring, and tracking of China's population.

"There have been reports that 'health code' apps have been manipulated to restrict the movement of human rights defenders," the UK report added.