The
Australian government has expressed "alarm" at China's crackdown
against Muslim minorities and called for an end to the detention of up
to 1 million people in indoctrination camps.
In the strongest
Australian intervention yet on the Chinese government campaign,
officials delivered a statement at the United Nations highlighting
reports that minority groups and human rights advocates have been
tortured or otherwise targeted by authorities.
"Australia
shares the UN [Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's]
alarm at numerous reports of detention of large numbers of ethnic
Uighurs and other Muslim groups held incommunicado and often for long
periods without being charged or tried, which exacerbates rather than
prevents religious extremism," the statement said.
"Australia
recommends that China cease the practice of arbitrarily detaining
Uighurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang ... [and] immediately
release individuals currently detained."
The remarks are contained
in the government's submission to the UN Human Rights Council's
Universal Periodic Review, which examines member states' human rights
records every five years. The submission also urged China to lift
restrictions on minorities' freedom of movement and allow access to
Xinjiang and Tibet for UN officials.
A
growing body of reporting from Xinjiang, a large north-western
province, has found the Chinese government has detained hundreds of
thousands of Muslims in facilities as part of an effort to suppress
religious practices and instil Chinese Communist ideology. Uighurs not
in detention live in an increasingly advanced surveillance state.
After
initially denying the existence of the mass detention camps, Chinese
authorities have more recently sought to justify the sweeping campaign
as necessary to stabilise the region and combat separatism and
terrorism.
Global concern about the crackdown has grown just as
the Australia-China relationship shows signs of healing, with Foreign
Minister Marise Payne and Trade Minister Simon Birmingham visiting China
this week.
Senator Payne's high-level meeting with Chinese
counterpart Wang Yi follows a period of tension centred around
Australia's crackdown on foreign interference and influence, China's
militarisation of the disputed South China Sea, and its growing
influence in the Pacific.
Experts say the thaw is a sign Beijing
is looking to improve relationships amid a deepening trade dispute with
the United States.
"China
is looking for friends in the face of the onslaught of Trump. They need
friends and partners, particularly on trade, to reinforce their left
flank," said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute.
Australia's
official submission at the UN follows comments from Opposition Leader
Bill Shorten last week, the first on the sensitive issue from a leader
of a major Australian political party.
"There's no doubt in my
mind that we don't have all the information that people are asking for
in terms of the treatment of the Uighur minority and that what we've
seen is gravely disturbing," Mr Shorten said during an appearance at the
Lowy Institute.
Senator Payne has previously said Australia has
"serious concerns" about the situation in Xinjiang and promised to raise
the issue during her meetings in Beijing.
In its contribution to
the review, the United States urged China to "abolish all forms of
arbitrary detention, including internment camps in Xinjiang, and
immediately release the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of
individuals detained in these camps".
Le Yucheng, the head of the Chinese delegation to the Geneva forum, dismissed the criticisms as "seriously far away from facts".
"We
will not accept politically driven accusations from a few countries
that are fraught with biases and in total disregard of the facts," he
said.
