National has stepped up its response to the United Nations report on Xinjiang, with leader Christopher Luxon calling findings of potential crimes against humanity in the Chinese region "gravely concerning".
He told reporters on Tuesday that New Zealand needs to "stand up for our values" by encouraging China to respond to the landmark report's recommendations.
It comes after National's foreign affairs spokesperson, Gerry Brownlee, was accused of echoing Beijing's line by focusing his response to the report on what it said about China's counter-terrorism activities in the province. Beijing frequently dismisses concerns about its actions in Xinjiang by saying they're necessary to fighting terrorism there.
While Brownlee did call for Beijing to engage with the report's recommendations, he said what was "most poignant for me" was how it showed some of the Chinese Government's activities "have been about preventing terrorist activity".
In fresh comments on Tuesday, the former Foreign Affairs Minister said he hadn't been repeating Chinese talking points but "parroting what is actually in that report".
Released by the UN Human Rights Office in early September, the report declared "serious human rights violations" are underway in Xinjiang in the context of "counter-terrorism" strategies. It found allegations of torture, forced medical treatments, and the use of arbitrary and discriminatory detention against the local Uyghur Muslim population are credible and recommended all detained people are released.
But the Chinese Government blasted the report as being based on "disinformation and lies" and continued to claim camps in Xinjiang are for vocational education and counter-terrorism purposes.
In his first public comments on the report, Luxon on Tuesday said the findings were "gravely concerning" and that he supported the Government raising concerns directly with the Chinese Government.
"There are serious and grave concerns there and I think it's entirely appropriate that we, in our conversations with China as a Government, and that's why I support the government's position on it, raise them with them, but also expect them to respond to those recommendations."
Brownlee clarified the report "would be evidence of human rights abuses" and reiterated his view the findings "need to be addressed" by Beijing.
"My point simply was that there had to be a dialogue and I called for that dialogue. When there is a dialogue, you have to have two points of view as a starting point. But that doesn't in any way resile from my view, that I've expressed before, that what's going on in Xinjiang is unacceptable."
Following a highly orchestrated propaganda event about Xinjiang hosted by the Chinese Government last April, Brownlee said he was "more concerned" than ever about activities in the region. He called for an independent UN observer to investigate and said if abuses were occurring "on the scale we are told about, that might make the genocide test".
Newshub asked Brownlee on Tuesday what more would need to be seen before he believes New Zealand could declare a genocide is occurring in Xinjiang.
"That is a very big word. There are a number of places around the world where genocides have been claimed and we've been asked to proclaim them and we haven't," he said.
"I think you move cautiously around that sort of heavy, heavy condemnation. The important thing now is to try and encourage China to get to the table, to really have a good consideration of the way that things are being conducted in Xinjiang."
He said if China wants to get the respect that other large countries receive, then it would need to engage with the report.
The ACT Party leader David Seymour told reporters what Brownlee says often "takes a bit of interpretation".
"The facts are that the [Chinese Communist Party] is an organisation who does not share our values and is a danger to many aspects of New Zealand life and we need to be entirely realistic and prepared for any eventuality that comes from that."
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta expressed "deep concern" at the UN report earlier this month and called on China "to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respond to the concerns and the recommendations".
Mahuta said New Zealand would consider the details of the report before determining further steps, but on Tuesday told Newshub she didn't have any updates.
"We continue to work through the number of recommendations, many of which fall upon China to respond," she said.
In response to a motion from ACT, the New Zealand Parliament last year agreed "severe human rights abuses" are occurring in Xinjiang, but didn't go as far as to call it a "genocide" after concerns from the ruling Labour Party about the term's use.
Mahuta said at the time the Government hadn't formally designated the situation a genocide, not because of a lack of concern, but because such a determination should only be reached "following a rigorous assessment on the basis of international law".
"International courts have required fully conclusive evidence before reaching a conclusion of genocide," she said.
New Zealand has a sensitive relationship with China as the Asian behemoth is our largest trading partner, with two-way trade worth more than $33 billion. While China hasn't responded aggressively to any condemnation from New Zealand, it has previously enforced trade tariffs on Australia in response to Canberra's call for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Key last week said New Zealand had to "think very, very cautiously about what we say" and make points without "incredibly inflammatory language".
Sir John, who led National between 2006 and 2016, said he didn't view China as "the aggressor that everybody else sees" and believes Beijing's recent expansionist moves in the Pacific are more "nuanced" than others have suggested.
Luxon on Tuesday wouldn't say if he viewed China as an aggressor, while Brownlee said it's not yet clear if China's rise as an "economically very powerful" country will translate into military aggression.
