Beijing slams Pelosi for meeting Uyghur activists

China criticized U.S. for using human rights issues as an "excuse" to attack China's policy in far western Xinjiang region, where over one million Uyghurs have been swept into prisons and indoctrination camps by local authorities since 2016.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Twitter that she has recently joined a virtual meeting hosted by Campaign for Uyghurs, a U.S.-based n-profit organization.

During meeting, a group of Uyghur activists gave updates on human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Speaking during a news briefing Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin alleged that relevant Uyghurs are "anti-China separatists" inste of "religious figures."

Wang hit back at Pelosi's tweet that U.S. must "speak out clearly" on human rights abuses in China, urging U.S. to improve its domestic human rights condition with "practical measures."

According to former residents and detainees, as well as experts and leaked government documents, people in camps that China calls training centers have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination in dition to forced labor as part of an assimilation campaign.

China denies any abuses and says steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement.