China warns Belgium for possible "worse relations"
The Chinese authorities have urged Belgium to "rectify a mistake" in the shortest delays after the federal Chamber of Representatives approved an Uighur resolution. The text is talking about a serious risk of genocide against the Uighur muslim minority in western China.
The Chamber Commission for Foreign Relations approved the text on Tuesday. Belgium strongly condemns "ad random detentions among the Uighur minority and the violation of human rights in the Chinese region of Xinjiang". It adds that "the prosecutions and massive violations of human rights may give rise to crimes against humanity". In the text, Belgium calls on China to stop the present policies including the re-education camps for Uighurs.
The approval of the resolution did not go down well at all in China, to say the least. Beijing has warned Belgium that the text may trigger worse relations. "We call on Belgium to rectify its mistake at once", Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Office, warned Brussels.
A plenary session in the Federal Chamber of Representatives will treat the text in the short term. Tuesday's voting came after two days of hearings in which Uighurs were called in to testify.