China says reached ‘consensus’ with UN on counter-terror work

BEIJING: China and the United Nations have reached a “broad consensus” about counter-terror work, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday after a controversial visit by a senior UN official to the restive far western Chinese region of Xinjiang this week. The United States and other western countries objected to a visit by the UN counterterrorism chief to Xinjiang, where UN experts say some one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are held in detention centres. Diplomats said that along with the United States several other countries, including Britain, complained about the trip of Vladimir Voronkov, a veteran Russian diplomat who heads the UN Counterterrorism Office. US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan spoke with UN Secretary-General Ant?nio Guterres on Friday “to convey deep concerns” about Voronkov’s trip because “Beijing continues to paint its repressive campaign against Uighurs and other Muslims as legitimate counterterrorism efforts when it is not”. (Reuters)