China says human rights criticism unhelpful for trade talks amid UN push to stop Xinjiang detentions

23 nations including US make joint statement to human rights committee urging respect for rights and end to arbitrary detention of Uygurs

Beijing’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun says countries want a trade deal on one hand while casting blame about rights issues on the other

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China refers to its camps in Xinjiang as vocational skills centres. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:31am, 30 Oct 2019Updated: 11:14pm, 30 Oct 2019

The United States and 22 other countries at the United Nations pushed China on Tuesday to stop detaining ethnic Uygurs and other Muslims, prompting China’s UN envoy to warn it was not “helpful” for trade talks between Beijing and Washington.

China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in remote Xinjiang, in its far west, that it describes as “vocational training centres” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills. The United Nations says at least 1 million ethnic Uygurs and other Muslims have been detained.

“It’s hard to imagine that on the one hand you are trying to seek to have a trade deal, on the other hand you are making use of any issues, especially human rights issues, to blame the others,” China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters.

He said there was “progress” in the trade talks, but said of US criticism of China at the UN: “I do not think it’s helpful for having a good solution to the issue of trade talks.”

US and Chinese negotiators are working to complete the text of an interim trade agreement for US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to sign at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile on November 16 to 17.