Chinese state TV recently showed President Xi Jinping greeted like a hero in Xinjiang, but Beijing's narrative of a happy, harmonious ethnic community has been discredited by a United Nations report.
Amnesty International Aotearoa's Margaret Taylor says China's actions have caused appalling harm to the Uyghur community both in Xinjiang and in New Zealand.
The report found "patterns of torture or cruel, inhuman treatment" and that Beijing's detention regime in Xinjiang may constitute "crimes against humanity".
It also said it was "reasonable to conclude that a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention occurred... at least during 2017 to 2019".
But when asked by Newshub about the report, the National Party chose not to focus on the findings of grave human rights abuses.
"Most poignant for me is that it has recognised that some of the activities the Chinese government have been about have been about preventing terrorist activity in Xinjiang," National foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee said.
Brownlee went on to draw a comparison with New Zealand.
"The intentions of that are not significantly different to those of our own New Zealand legislation.
"The issue is of course how that's interpreted and of course the way in which the alleged terrorists are pursued," he said.
But the report is critical of China's anti-terrorism law - saying it's "vague and broad" and open to interpretation by officials.
Newshub spoke to a Uyghur Muslim in New Zealand - for his safety he can't be identified. He hasn't spoken to his family in Xinjiang for years.
He said Brownlee is helping push Beijing's line.
"He is too naive," he said.
"He has no idea how evil these people are plus like, what their real agenda is.
"That is very very sad, and standing on the wrong side of history."
The member of the Kiwi Uyghur community said the UN's assessment of potential "crimes against humanity" doesn't go far enough.
"Genocide is genocide, like, why would the UN do China a favour?"
Brownlee did say he wanted to see "China make some progress on remedying some of the concerns that have been expressed in that report".
The Government says it's "deeply concerned".
"We call on China to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respond to the concerns and the recommendations raised in the High Commissioner's report," Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement.
"We've already shared our grave concerns over what we've seen come from the [UN Human Rights] Commissioner there," Jacinda Ardern said.
But the Uyghur Newshub spoke to said New Zealand is "sitting on the fence" when it comes to Xinjiang.
"Yes deeply concerning, if your neighbour is dying like you are deeply concerned and you do nothing, it means nothing."
He called for New Zealand to ban the import of goods from Xinjiang, and urged the Government to help preserve Uyghur language and culture, which he says is at risk of being wiped out completely in China.
