Beijing slams Pelosi for meeting Uyghur activists

China criticized the U.S. for using human rights issues as an "excuse" to attack China's policy in the 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 non-profit organization.

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

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

Wang hit back at Pelosi's tweet that the U.S. must "speak out clearly" on human rights abuses in China, urging the 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 the camps that China calls training centers have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination in addition to forced labor as part of an assimilation campaign.

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