BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s United Nations envoy has rejected his U.S. counterpart’s comment that China’s alternative of an ethnic Uyghur as a torchbearer for the Olympic flame on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was an try to distract from his nation’s alleged rights abuses towards Muslim minorities.

Ambassador Zhang Jun stated in an announcement on the embassy’s web site that China “sternly refutes” the “unwarranted accusations” made by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in an interview with CNN.

Zhang stated that Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a cross nation skier born in Xinjiang, is “among the many finest” of the 20 athletes from 9 ethnic minorities competing for Crew China on the Winter Video games.

“She is the delight and wonderful consultant of the Chinese language individuals. The place does the U.S.’ inexplicable anger over this come from, and what intentions does it harbour?” Zhang stated.

Dinigeer was chosen as one of many final two torchbearers on the opening ceremony. Many Western nations have imposed a diplomatic boycott of the Video games over China’s remedy of Uyghurs and members of different Muslim minority teams in Xinjiang.

U.N. consultants and rights teams estimate greater than one million individuals, primarily from the Uyghur and different Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps in Xinjiang since 2016.

China rejects accusations of abuse, describing the camps as vocational centres designed to fight extremism, and in late 2019 it stated all individuals within the camps had “graduated”.

Worldwide Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams stated on Saturday that Dinigeer was not chosen due to the place she comes from.

Chinese language organisers of the Video games stated the torchbearers who entered the stadium with the flame had been picked primarily based on their beginning dates, with every having been born in a special decade, ranging from the Nineteen Fifties by to the 2000s.