CHINA branded the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) a violent terror organisation on Friday as the group opened its three-day conference in the Czech Republic.

In a statement, the Chinese embassy in the Czech Republic condemned the group for organising anti-China activities in the European country and warned that the group was seeking to split China’s Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region from the rest of the country.

The embassy said that claims of genocide and forced labour in the semi-autonomous region are “blatant lies with malicious purposes,” and repeated an invitation for people to visit Xinjiang to see the evidence for themselves.