Xinjiang Rights Report Ratchets Up Standoff Between the U.S. and China

HONG KONG—China lashed out at the United Nations’ human-rights company, calling its evaluation 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 company of appearing as a “hired thug and accomplice” for a Washington-led conspiracy to comprise China with smear techniques. 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 stated at a Thursday briefing.