False German and UK claims refuted in UN

China's deputy permanent representative to the UN strongly refuted the false accusations made by the United Kingdom and Germany against China at a UN General Assembly meeting on Wednesday, telling the two countries "to reflect on themselves".

During an informal meeting on the secretary-general's Call to Action for Human Rights, the UK and German representatives to the UN abused the meeting, distorted the facts, and once again used doctor Li Wenliang to shift the blame to China, Dai Bing said.

The envoy said the two nations politicized China's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, falsely claiming that there's "genocide", "forced labor" and "religious prosecution" in Xinjiang, which China resolutely refuted.

"I want to point out that the statements by the UK and the German representatives were an exercise to spread politically false information in an attempt to incite political antagonism," the ambassador said.

Their statements were at odds with the intent of Wednesday's meeting, and China condemns this hypocritical act, Dai added.

"I want to say to the representative of the UK, Li Wenliang was an outstanding representative of all those who step forward to defy the pandemic in China. He was an eye doctor, not a so-called whistle-blower," Dai said.

He noted that the UK has already lost more than 120,000 lives to the pandemic, adding, "I want to ask you: who's the whistle-blower in the UK?" he asked.

Dai said the German representative's reference to reports on Xinjiang in his statement was "a very unprofessional practice as a diplomat".

'Nothing but fabrications'

"These reports are nothing but fabrications and the lies concocted by individual anti-China elements. There have never been "genocide", "forced labor" and "religious prosecution" in Xinjiang," Dai said.

He said "the outlandish narratives" are due to ignorance and prejudice, and they are nothing but malicious political hype which ran counter to facts.

"A brief recall of the colonial past of the UK, and the crimes committed by Germany during the World War II are sufficient to tell us how much evil and troubles these two countries have brought to this world," said Dai, adding: "It is you who should reflect on yourself."

"I want to say this to the UK and Germany, while the pandemic is raging, stop spreading political virus. What we need is solidarity to fight the pandemic and the solidarity to promote human rights," Dai said.