China has responded furiously to a United Nations report on alleged human rights abuses in its northwestern Xinjiang region targeting Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities.
The report has been in the works for years and was released despite Chinese efforts to delay or block it, aware of how it could validate claims that more than 1 million ethnic minority members were forcibly sent to centres it says were for vocational training.
Those who were held, their relatives and monitoring groups describe them as prison-like reeducation centres where inmates were forced to denounce Islam and their traditional culture, while swearing fidelity to the ruling Communist Party.
The camps have been part of a widespread campaign of repression in Xinjiang, allegedly including involuntary sterilizations of women, forced labour, the demolition of mosques and other religious sites, the separation of Muslim children from their families and the harassment of minority members living abroad.
(Text from agencies)