China's ambassador to the US has described his country's unprecedented crackdown on its Muslim minority as a measure "to turn them into normal persons."
Authorities have subjected the Uighurs — a majority-Muslim, Turkic ethnic minority populated in western China — to an unprecedented amount of surveillance in their home region, Xinjiang . Uighurs refer to the region as East Turkestan.
Earlier this year activists accused China of imprisoning up to 1 million Uighurs in detention centers or re-education camps, a characterization China has routinely fought against. Beijing justifies its crackdown against Uighurs as a counterterrorism measure, and called the camps "free vocational training" that make Uighurs' life "colorful."
Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador, hit back at those accusations again, telling Reuters in an interview published Tuesday: "We are trying to re-educate most of them, trying to turn them into normal persons [who] can go back to normal life."
The Trump administration is reportedly considering sanctions to target companies and officials over Xinjiang, including Chen Quanguo, the regional Communist Party secretary who is considered the architect of the Uighur crackdown.
Earlier this month, a group of congressmen also introduced a bipartisan bill to pressure the White House into consider banning exports of US technology that could be used to oppress Uighurs and imposing sanctions against human rights offenders.
Cui said China would hit back on any sanctions the US would impose on China over the Uighur issue. He told Reuters: "If such actions are taken, we have to retaliate." He did not say how exactly Beijing would react.
He also likened China's crackdown on the Uighurs to the US fight against the Islamic State terror group.
"Can you imagine [if] some American officials in charge of the fight against ISIS would be sanctioned?" he said.
Read more: China is locking up its Muslim minorities, and pushing Islamophobia to get Europe to do it too
Earlier this week Bitter Winter, an online magazine reporting on human rights in China, published footage from inside a detention center in Yingye'er, western Xinjiang.
The footage shows a series of dorm rooms fitted with double iron doors and tightly secured windows, making the compound look like a conventional prison.
Read more: Shocking footage purportedly shows cells inside prison camp where China oppresses Muslim minority
NOW WATCH: What serving in the military taught beauty YouTuber Jackie Aina
See Also:
- Shocking footage purportedly shows cells inside prison camp where China oppresses Muslim minority
- Terrorists opposed to Xi Jinping's Belt and Road megaproject claim responsibility for killing 4 at Chinese Consulate in Pakistan
- Head of Russia's GRU spy agency dies from 'serious illness' after Putin reportedly berated him for botching an assassination in the UK