The United States has demanded “serious consequences” over reports of systematic rape and torture of women taking place inside China’s camps for the Uighur Muslim minority.
The US state department said that it was “deeply disturbed” by the “atrocities”.
China’s foreign ministry has strongly denied the “false report”.
A BBC article detailed allegations of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture with the internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region.
According to independent estimates, more than a million people have been detained in the camps, which China says exist for the “re-education” of Uighurs and other minorities.
One woman who fled Xinajiang after her release and is now in the US said women were removed from their cells “every night” and raped by one or more masked Chinese men.
She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.
A Khazakh woman from Xinjiang who was detained for 18 months in the camp system said she was force to strip Uighur women naked and handcuff them, before leaving them alone with Chinese men.
A guard at one of the camps, who spoke on condition on anonymity, detailed allegations of torture.
A US state department spokesperson said: “We are deeply disturbed by reports, including first-hand testimony, of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang”.
“These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences.”
