China criticizes US, Germany for raising Xinjiang issue at UN

Reuters: China denounced the U.S. and Germany today (July 3) for raising issues related to Xinjiang at a United Nations Security Council meeting a day earlier. Speaking at a regular news conference in Beijing Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the meeting was supposed to be held behind closed doors and he did not know how the contents had been leaked to the media. "Xinjiang matters are purely an internal affair for China, and have nothing to do with the Security Council's agenda," he said. During the United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday (July 2) the U.S. and Germany both criticised China for detaining more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, accusing Beijing of depriving them of their rights, diplomats said. China has been widely condemned for setting up detention complexes in remote Xinjiang. It describes them as "education training centres" helping to stamp out extremism and give people new skills.