Parliament has unanimously declared 'severe human rights abuses' are occurring against the Uyghur people in China's Xinjiang province.
MPs this afternoon debated China's treatment of the Uighur minority and called on the government to work with its international partners to bring the abuses to an end.
ACT's deputy leader Brooke Van Velden told the House it's clear a genocide is taking place in China's Xinjiang province. She said the evidence is "voluminous" and "credible."
The government's previously expressed its grave concerns about the growing number of credible reports of severe human rights abuses against ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
It has stopped short of declaring a genocide, however. Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said that wasn't due to a lack of concern.
China has dismissed talk of force labour or genocide as lies and fabrication by anti-China forces, and has warned other countries including New Zealand about interfering in its own internal business.
