China tells US politicians to stop using Xinjiang to interfere in its affairs

China on Thursday urged US politicians to stop using issues in its Xinjiang region to interfere in its affairs -- in the aftermath of the United States demanding the release of a Uighur doctor.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the comments at a regular news conference in Beijing.

The doctor's family said she was sentenced to 20 years of jail in China because of her family members' human rights activism in the United States.

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The daughter of Gulshan Abbas told a briefing organised with the bipartisan US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) that the family had recently learned her mother received the sentence in March last year on terrorism-related charges after disappearing in September 2018.

The daughter, Ziba Murat, called the charges “preposterous.” Gulshan’s sister, Rushan Abbas, said they stemmed from activism by her and her brother Rishat Abbas, both of whom are based in the United States.

In a tweet, the US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, Robert Destro, said Gulshan Abbas must be released.

Ziba Murat said she could not reveal the source of the information on the sentencing to protect their identity.

UN experts and advocates say at least a million ethnic Uighurs have been detained at some point in camps in China's Xinjiang region.

China calls the heavily guarded centers educational and vocational institutes, and says all those who attended have “graduated” and gone home. Access to the camps is restricted and it is not possible to independently verify whether all have closed.