Junior foreign office minister Leo Docherty said that Tuniyaz
might visit Britain next week, though he had not been invited to
London by the government and would not be "dignified" with a
ministerial meeting.
"China's actions in Xinjiang are of course abhorrent and we will
not legitimise them in any way," Docherty told lawmakers.
"However, robust engagement to challenge human rights violations
and stand up for the rights of the oppressed is at the core of
the UK's diplomatic work around the world... hence officials
would be prepared to offer him a meeting."
Rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses against Uyghurs, a mainly
Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in
Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labour in internment
camps. The United States and some other foreign lawmakers and
parliaments have accused China of genocide.
China has vigorously denied the allegations.
Docherty said a meeting with Tuniyaz would be to tell him that
Britain would raise the treatment of Uyghur Muslims and "not
relent from exposing the horrors to which they are being
subjected".
Britain's parliament has declared that the treatment of the
Uyghurs amounts to genocide, but the government has said it will
not make such a determination.
While the United States has sanctioned Tuniyaz, Britain has not,
and Docherty said that as he was expected to travel on a
diplomatic passport, no visa was required.
British lawmakers from different parties criticised the
government's stance and questioned why Tuniyaz had not been
sanctioned, with Conservative Iain Duncan Smith saying it was a
"weak response".
"Whether or not the Foreign Office is tough, this is a
propaganda coup for the Chinese government," Duncan Smith, who
has been sanctioned by China for speaking out on the situation
in Xinjiang, told lawmakers.
"The place to deal with these individuals is in a tribunal or a
court of law, not in the quiet office of a foreign office
official."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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