Barcelona's Antoine Griezmann ends Huawei deal over alleged Uighur surveillance in China

French football player Antoine Griezmann ended his affiliation with Huawei on Thursday, saying re are “strong suspicions” that Chinese tech giant has contributed to repression of Uighur Muslims. 29-year-old Barcelona forward's anuncement followed media reports that Huawei has tested facial recognition software intended to help China's surveillance of group, according to Associated Press.

'I take this opportunity to invite Huawei...'

"Following strong suspicions that Huawei company has contributed to development of a ‘Uighur alert’ thanks to facial recognition software, I am anuncing immediate termination of my partnership with company," Griezmann said in an Instagram post.

"I take this opportunity to invite Huawei to t just deny se accusations," he said, "but to take concrete actions as quickly as possible to condemn this mass repression, and to use its influence to contribute to respect of human and women's rights in society."

China's crackdown on Uighurs

Griezmann was a global brand ambassador for Huawei and has appeared in advertisements promoting company's smartphones. An AP investigation found that Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and or mirities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encours some of country’s Han majority to have more children.

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Huawei, China’s first global tech brand and biggest maker of switching equipment used by phone and internet companies, is at centre of U.S.-Chinese tension over techlogy, security and spying. Since 2016, China has detained up to 1 million Uighurs - who are native to Xinjiang, an automous region in rthwest China - in internment camps, centres that government has called "reeducation camps." Officials at camps force Uighurs to abandon ir culture and adopt Chinese customs, like learning Mandarin langu.

According to media reports, Chinese government has already been using high-tech surveillance tools to monitor Uighurs, including installing hundreds of thousands of cameras in Xinjiang to identify m and spying on m through ir phones. Several international human rights activists and nations have condemned China's actions. 

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(With ncy inputs)