China's Mission to the UN Office at Geneva refuted a statement on Monday from UN human rights experts after they voiced concerns of alleged human rights violations in China's remote Xinjiang region against ethnic Uygurs.
In the statement released earlier on Monday, the UN experts said Uygur workers have been allegedly forcibly employed in low-skilled and labor intensive industries such as cotton picking, textile and garment sectors, and called for global and domestic companies to "closely scrutinize their supply chains."
The Working Group on Business and Human Rights, together with a few other special procedures of the Human Rights Council, maliciously distorted facts and spread lies of "forced labor" against China out of bias and political purposes, the spokesman of China's Mission to the UN Office, Liu Yuyin said in a statement.
Citing the automation rate of Xinjiang's cotton industry, Liu said the Xinjiang's agribusiness, textile and garment, and automotive sectors, mentioned by these UN experts, have become highly automated.
In 2020, 70 percent of all cotton in Xinjiang was harvested mechanically, and the automation rate of some local textile companies was more than 90 percent, he noted.
Every village in China has access to 4G network, and rural residents across the country, including those in Xinjiang, have long been selling their agricultural products on the internet, he continued.
"We cannot help but wonder, how can 'forced labor' exist in such an era of digital economy and smart development?"
Liu said the group's statement is biased and political, and experts have rallied in an attempt to smear China, undermine China's stability and contain China's development.
"The Working Group is active in collaborating with anti-China forces, acting willingly as a 'mouthpiece' and 'amplifier' for them," Liu said.
He urged these experts and members of the Working Group to stop spreading illogical lies.
The envoy said China always welcomes fair and objective people from various countries to visit China including Xinjiang, but those biased with the attempt to conduct the so-called investigation in China "under the presumption of guilt" are not welcomed.
