China hits back after Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne attacks its human rights record
- Beijing says criticism ‘ignored the facts’ after minister’s speech in Sydney highlighted Muslim detention camps in Xinjiang and arrest of writer Yang Henjun
- Payne says Canberra will not turn a blind eye to human rights violations because it will not accept behaviour that ‘undermines international peace and stability’
Beijing has lashed out at Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne for criticising China’s human rights record, saying her comments were politically motivated.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular press briefing on Wednesday that Payne’s comments from the previous day – in which she said China must be held accountable for rights abuses – had “ignored the facts” and were made “out of political necessity”.
While he praised her other comments about the importance of developing a “strategic partnership” between the two countries, he said the criticisms were “really not good, and do not benefit the improvement and development of the two countries’ relations”.
“China has already lodged solemn representations with Australia about this, to say this way of doing things is very inappropriate,” he said.
Payne made the comments in a speech in Sydney on Tuesday, in which she said: “We must respect each other’s sovereignty, but we will consistently continue to raise issues such as human rights, including, as I have said, with China.”
