HONG KONG—China lashed out at the United Nations’ human-rights agency, calling its assessment of possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang an illegitimate report concocted in cahoots with the U.S., a fiery response that underscored Beijing’s deepening geopolitical fissures with Western powers.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the U.N. rights agency of acting as a “hired thug and accomplice” for a Washington-led conspiracy to contain China with smear tactics. The U.N. report on Xinjiang “was planned and manufactured by the U.S. and some Western forces, and is completely illegal and void,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a Thursday briefing.