China can't co-operate with the UN human rights office after it released a report criticising Beijing's policies against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in western Xinjiang, a top Chinese diplomat said.
However, Chen Xu, China's ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva, distinguished between not working with the human rights office and co-operating with the world body overall.
Chen said the report issued last week – which said some rights violations under China's anti-terrorism policies could amount to crimes against humanity — offered up "groundless blame" of China's policies and practices.
![Zumret Dawut, a Uighur from China's western Xinjiang region who was forcibly sterilised for having a third child, after being released from a Xinjiang detention camp. Photo / AP](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/N2ZDJD4YZ5KVLW4MHBDFCZW26I.jpg?auth=06b85ebbc1705d71813777b622655c567923f06fb55a8d7b6a24d5314bc61b9d&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
"We cannot, on the one hand, conduct co-operation with the office, while at the same time it issued such a kind of assessment," Chen told UN Geneva press association ACANU. China believes the report "constitutes a threat" and cannot "conduct co-operation as if nothing happened", he said.