China's Foreign Minister says UN rights chief can visit Xinjiang but won't allow any probe

UN Human Rights Chief Bachelet has long sought access to the western Chinese region to investigate accusations of abuse against ethnic Uyghurs.

A guard tower and barbed wire fences are seen around a facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region. (File photo| AP)

BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet can visit Xinjiang but the Beijing doesn't welcome any investigation in the region.

"(China) rejects all kinds of biases, prejudices and uncalled-for accusations," Wang, who is also a Chinese state councillor, said by video at the Munich Security Conference when asked if Bachelet would have unrestricted access to Xinjiang, a Pakistani media outlet reported.

This comes as rights groups and the US have accused China of committing genocide against ethnic Uyghurs.

China has been accused of widescale abuses against Uyghurs and other minority groups, including torture, forced labour and detention of one million people in internment camps.

Non-governmental organizations and media outlets have documented numerous serious human rights violations by Chinese authorities.

These include arbitrary detention, torture, and forced labour of millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in Xinjiang (the Uyghur region); the decimation of independent media, democratic institutions, and rule of law in Hong Kong; high-tech surveillance systems enabling authorities to track and unjustly prosecute peaceful conduct, including criticism shared through apps and many other human rights violations.