China has accused the US of “abusing” a United Nations event to mark an international day against Islamophobia after the American ambassador in New York used it to draw attention to Beijing’s persecution of its Uyghur minority.
The event was being held ahead of the first International Day to Combat Islamophobia on Wednesday, which the General Assembly last year voted to observe annually on 15 March, the anniversary of the 2019 attack on two mosques in New Zealand which left 51 people dead.
Speaking at the event, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said that the US had formally recognised that Muslims are increasingly subject to “discrimination and violence”, and cited the treatment of the Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Myanmar.
China’s persecution of the Uyghurs has been documented by human rights organisations and by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and has been widely condemned by western governments.
