“The evidence of severe human rights abuses and crimes against the Uygur people is already overwhelming and indisputable, and parliament has called it a genocide,” said MP Tom Tugendhat, chair of the committee and one of Britain’s most outspoken China hawks.

“This report moves the conversation forward, away from the question of whether crimes are taking place and on to what Britain should do to end them.”

He also called on the Johnson administration to recognise the British parliament’s vote accusing China of genocide in the region “to prevent a repeat of the barbarity we saw in Asia and Europe 80 years ago”.

“I will certainly consider the proposal debated, but I must say that I am instinctively and always have been against sporting boycotts,” Johnson told MPs.

If the UN is not granted access by September 14, when the UN General Assembly’s 76th session opens, “the UK government should not send ministers, royal family members or senior representatives to participate in any official duties or ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics,” the Labour MPs said.

China accuses EU of making ‘unacceptable’ demands over Xinjiang

Campaigners and Western governments claim up to a million Uygurs are being held in prison camps in Xinjiang, along with accusations of forced labour and rape.

China counters that the accusations of mass human rights abuses and genocide are fabricated, designed to destabilise the country, undermine its efforts to fight separatism and Islamist terrorism, and put a propaganda bomb under its Belt and Road Initiative.

Beijing points to rising living standards in what was traditionally one of the poorest regions of post-war China, promoting this in propaganda videos.

Cotton ban

The FAC report called for a total import ban on cotton from Xinjiang, which it says is gathered by slave labour, as well as products from other industries in the region, such as solar panels.

International fashion brands like Burberry and H&M, which have long sourced cotton from Xinjiang, have been caught up in the growing tensions between the West and China. Moves to buy cotton from elsewhere led to boycotts of the brands by Chinese consumers.

Regarding the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the report recommends a boycott of the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as discouraging British businesses from sponsorship deals and fans and tourists from attending.

Euro MPs to call for Olympic boycott and sanctions on Hong Kong officials

As well as granting quick asylum to those claiming to be persecuted, the FAC report also calls on the government to consult Uygurs already in Britain to “determine the extent of harassment they are facing from Chinese Communist Party officials”, and to offer appropriate protection.

On an international level, the report calls for Britain to lobby whenever it can for “the immediate disbandment of the camps”. It asks London to raise a complaint against China to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and engage in dialogue with the International Criminal Court about the feasibility of an investigation into crimes committed against the Uygurs in Xinjiang and beyond.

The parliament report recommends that if China refuses to allow an investigation by the UN human rights body inside China, the UN should hold one outside the country.

The Paris-based UN cultural agency Unesco is also criticised for “failing to act on widespread cultural destruction in Xinjiang”, while Britain is called on to push for an urgent, independent review of Unesco’s investigatory powers.

“No country is so powerful that it should be able to perpetrate atrocities with impunity,” said Tugendhat.

“The UK can choose to act and use the mechanisms and levers built into the UN, and other institutions, to hold the Chinese Communist Party to account. As the Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, it’s worth remembering that China has been a great civilisation for more than 5,000 years. These crimes against the Uygur people stand out as a black moment in a golden history.”

In Beijing, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan has increased concerns about the jihadist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which wants to create an Islamic State in Xinjiang supported by the Taliban. It fears that ETIM and other violent jihadist groups would be able to attack China from the Afghan province of Badakhshan, which shares a 76km border with Xinjiang.

The US recently took ETIM off its list of proscribed terrorist organisations, even though it has had fighters with Islamic State in Syria and has received support from al-Qaeda.

Beijing also has important allies in the region, including Pakistan, which supports China’s methods of clamping down on terror groups that have killed hundreds of people in Xinjiang, including the 2009 attack in Urumqi.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse