THE Chinese government rejected today a UN report that says it may be committing “crimes against humanity” in the Xinjiang region.

The accusation focuses on camps which China describes as re-education facilities for suspected Islamist extremists, implemented in response to terrorist attacks by separatist organisations like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Beijing has denied allegations from NGOs and Western governments that this programme has involved the mass incarceration of Uighurs (Xinjiang’s largest ethnic group) and other Muslim minorities.

The assessment released late on Wednesday by the UN’s human rights office in Geneva concluded that China has committed serious human rights violations under its anti-terrorism and anti-extremism policies and calls for “urgent attention” from the UN, the world community and China itself to address them.

The report largely repeats earlier reports by researchers, advocacy groups and the news media, including sources China says are partisan such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a body largely funded by arms companies and the Australian government.

The report did not address controversial claims around the number incarcerated, which has been put at over a million by the US government despite a lack of evidence.

China’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said it firmly opposed the report’s release, which it said ignores human rights achievements made in Xinjiang and the damage caused by terrorism and extremism to the population.

“Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” the protest read in part.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on the UN and governments to set up an independent investigation into the human rights abuses.

The UN report made no mention of genocide, which some countries, including the United States, have accused China of committing in Xinjiang based on contentious studies of birth rates. China points out that the Uighur population in Xinjiang has increased both absolutely and as a proportion of the region’s total  population over the past decade.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said: “The assessment is a patchwork of false information that serves as political tools for the US and other Western countries to strategically use Xinjiang to contain China.”

China issued a 122-page rebuttal, entitled "Fight against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Facts," that was posted by the UN along with the report.