(CNN) The Chinese government is conducting a mass, systematic campaign of human rights violations against Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang, a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report claims. Responding to the latest allegations, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Geng Shuang accused Human Rights Watch of being "biased on China" and refused to comment on the specific allegations contained in the report. In a statement, HRW China director Sophie Richardson said the Chinese government was "committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang on a scale unseen in the country in decades." Many ethnic Uyghurs and Kazakhs live abroad, and the crackdown has been tearing families apart. As well as the UN report last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers called for Chinese officials involved in alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang to be sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act -- the 2012 law originally designed to freeze the assets of certain Russian government officials and businessmen accused of human rights violations.

Source: CNN September 10, 2018 00:38 UTC