China Slams G-7 Statement Criticizing Human Rights Record

China has denounced the communique issued Sunday at the end of the G-7 summit that criticized Beijing over its human rights record.
 
The G-7 statement called on China to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang, and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration,” referring to the 1997 agreement that switched control of the financial hub from Britain to China.   
 
Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the minority Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, including the detention of more than one million Uyghurs into detention camps, widespread government surveillance and forced birth control.  
 
The Chinese embassy in London issued a statement accusing the G-7 leaders of interfering in its internal affairs, and according to Reuters, vowed to “resolutely fight back against all kinds of injustices and infringements imposed on China.”
 
The statement also said an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China’s central city of Wuhan in late 2019, should not be “politicized” in response to the G-7’s demand for “a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based” second probe by the World Health Organization.    
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