LONDON: Britain accused China of “gross human rights violations” against the Muslim Uyghur minority on Friday after Beijing slapped sanctions on UK lawmakers and lobby groups, widening a rift with Western powers over alleged abuses in Xinjiang.

According to human rights groups, at least one million Uyghurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in northwestern Xinjiang.

The European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic hierarchy this week in coordinated action over the allegations.

Beijing, which says Xinjiang is an “internal affair”, has retaliated with sanctions on individuals from the EU and Britain who have taken up the Uyghur cause and also spoken out in favour of democracy campaigners in Hong Kong.

While also fuelling a social media war on Western brands, China announced sanctions against nine British individuals and four entities, saying they had “maliciously spread lies and disinformation” over the treatment of Uyghurs.

The individual sanctions were confined to critical legislators rather than government ministers, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain stood squarely behind them.

“The MPs and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims,” he tweeted.

Beijing also sanctioned the China Research Group of MPs, the Uyghur Tribunal, and Essex Court Chambers, a partnership of lawyers who wrote a legal opinion that there is a case for genocide against the Chinese government concerning the Turkic ethnic group.

All of the sanctioned parties will be barred from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, while any assets in the country will be frozen, and Chinese citizens and institutions will be banned from dealings with them.

The China Research Group — led by sanctioned MPs Tom Tugendhat and Neil O’Brien — accused Beijing of a “profoundly sinister” approach to its critics.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2021