Chinese Ambassador Denies Alleged Human Rights Abuses Captured On Controversial Video

China's ambassador to the U.K. was forced to explain accusations on TV about his government's alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims, including a forced sterilization program and a controversial video showing detainees being herded onto trains.

Liu Xiaoming, who appeared on BBC's "Andrew Marr Show," denied allegations that China is attempting to reduce Uighur Muslims by forcing women to undergo “forced sterilization.” Liu claimed that the video was “fake” and that it is not “Government policy.”

“There is no so-called massive forced sterilization among Uighur people in China. It is totally against the truth,” Liu said in the interview Sunday to the BBC.

The 64-year-old has served as China's ambassador to the U.K. since March 2010.

Drone clips showed shaved Uighur men kneeling and blindfolded while apparently waiting for their turn to be led on trains. The video spread like wildfire on social media but Liu said he could not confirm the footage's authenticity.

Liu also told Marr that this wasn't the first time the network aired video of the alleged human rights violations by China on the Uighur population. He also described Xinjiang – the regional home of the Uighur – as the “most beautiful place” after asking Marr if the host has ever been to the region.

Liu was also confronted with an interview with a woman who claimed that the Chinese state had “forcibly sterilized” her. It was here that the ambassador denied China's use of the practice.

As both men continued to argue, Marr questioned Liu on his data when he said that the population of Uighur Muslims has increased in the last 40 years and that they are living peacefully with other ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

While Liu stated that the population has grown to 11 million, Marr rebutted with data coming from the Chinese government stating that the population in the Uighur jurisdiction fell to 84% between 2015 and 2018.

“That's not right. I gave you this figure as the Chinese ambassador. In the past 40 years, the Uighur population increased, the population in Xinjiang increased to double. The population doubled,” said Liu.

The ambassador also pointed out that the so-called sterilization claims came from a “small group of anti-Chinese people working against the interests of China.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused Beijing of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against the Uighurs after a number of reports pointed to minority groups being held in internment camps and prisons, or what activists describe as “black factories,” 9News reported.