China foreign ministry on NZ Huawei ban; Xinjiang detentions

(28 Nov 2018) China said on Wednesday it is "severely concerned" about the decision of New Zealand to ban China's telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G programme.
New Zealand's international spy agency on Wednesday halted mobile company Spark from using Huawei equipment in its planned 5G upgrade, saying it posed a "significant network security risk."
The action follows a ban in Australia, where Huawei was blocked in August from rolling out Australia's 5G network due to security concerns.
"We hope New Zealand will provide a level-playing field for Chinese enterprises' operations there and do something conducive to mutual trust and cooperation," said Geng Shuang, China's foreign ministry spokesperson.
Also on Wednesday China repeated its position on the issue of the massive detention in Xinjiang, saying it will safeguard its legitimate rights and interests should foreign governments interfere in the affairs of the western autonomous region.
Tensions between Muslim minorities and Han Chinese in Xinjiang have bubbled over in recent years, resulting in violent attacks pegged to Uighur separatists and a fierce government crackdown on broadly defined "extremism" that has placed as many as 1 million Muslims in internment camps, according to estimates by experts and a human rights group.
China's Uighur Muslims say the omnipresent threat of being sent to one of these centres, which are described as political indoctrination camps by former detainees, looms large in their relatives' minds when they are forced to welcome party members into their homes.
"Xinjiang affairs are China's internal affairs," said Geng.

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