A UN report said claims of torture and forced labor in China’s Xinjiang are credible and warned of crimes against humanity condemned by Beijing on Thursday as a “political tool” to contain the country.

The landmark report details a range of rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Far Western region, and puts the UN seal on many of the allegations that have long been leveled by activist groups, Western nations and the Uyghur community in exile.

However, the report stopped naming China’s actions in the Xinjiang genocide — claims by the United States and several Western lawmakers.

“The extent of the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups … may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity,” the report said.

It said the world must now pay “urgent attention” to the human rights situation in Xinjiang.

Beijing hit back hard at the report — over a year in the making — and maintained its firm opposition to its release, releasing a more than 100-page document from the Xinjiang provincial government in defense of its policies in the region.

“The so-called critical report you mentioned was first-hand planned and fabricated by the United States and some western armed forces, it is totally illegal and invalid,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular briefing on Thursday.

“The report is a hodgepodge of misinformation and a political tool that is part of the West’s strategy to use Xinjiang to control China,” he added.

Wang also slammed the UN legal office for “declining to be the thug and accomplice of the US and the West,” but said the report’s failure to call China’s actions genocidal shows their “lies…have fallen apart.” .

Michelle Bachelet, the UN human rights chief, said she had decided that a full assessment of the situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) was needed.

Bachelet was determined to publish it before the end of her four-year tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the end of August – and did so with 13 minutes left at 11:47 p.m. in Geneva.

“I said I will publish it before my mandate ends and I have,” Bachelet said in an email sent to AFP on Thursday.

“The politicization of these serious human rights issues by some states has not helped.”

China has been accused for years of imprisoning more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in the region.

Beijing has vehemently denied the claims, insisting it runs vocational training centers aimed at curbing extremism.

“Serious human rights violations were committed in XUAR in connection with the use of government strategies to counter terrorism and ‘extremism,'” the UN report says.

The assessment raised concerns about the treatment of people held in China’s so-called Vocational Education and Training Centers (VETCs).

“Allegations of patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and unfavorable prison conditions, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence,” the report said.

The UN Human Rights Office could not confirm how many people were affected by the VETCs, but concluded that the system was working “on a large scale” across the region.

The number in the VETCs, at least between 2017 and 2019, was “very significant and included a significant proportion of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities”.

Activists have accused China of forcibly sterilizing women, and the report cites “credible evidence of reproductive rights violations through the enforced enforcement of family planning policies.”

NGOs and campaign groups have said the report should serve as a launch pad for further action.

Human Rights Watch China director Sophie Richardson said the “devastating” findings of widespread rights violations show why Beijing “fought tooth and nail” to prevent its release.

Reaction from the Uyghur activist community was mixed, with some groups praising their work while others wished they had continued to condemn Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang.

“This is a turning point in the international response to the Uyghur crisis,” said Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

“Despite the Chinese government’s strong denials, the UN has now officially acknowledged that horrific crimes are happening.”

And the President of the World Uyghur Congress, Dolkun Isa, said the report paves the way for “meaningful and concrete action” by countries, companies and the UN, adding: “Accountability starts now.”

But Salih Hudayar, a Uighur-American campaigner for Xinjiang’s independence, told AFP the report was “unfortunately not as strong as we had hoped”.

“Our people have waited for years for the UN to speak up,” Hudayar said.

“Unfortunately, due to pressure from the Chinese government, the UN has remained silent for a long time.”