The top official in China's Xinjiang region has derided US sanctions imposed on him over a crackdown on Uighur minorities, saying he has no intention to travel to the United States anyway.

Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief in Xinjiang, was among several officials hit with a freeze on US assets and visa bans earlier this month.

The group was accused of "horrific and systematic abuses" in Xinjiang including forced labour, mass detention and involuntary population control.

"The so-called sanctions by the United States are blatant, outrageous, and unjustifiable acts of hegemony," Chen, 64, said in an interview with the official Xinhua news agency published on Tuesday.

The sanctions, he said, violate international law, "gravely interfere" in China's internal affairs and severely damage bilateral relations.

"What needs to be stated is that I have no interest in going to the United States at all, nor do I have any assets there," Chen said.

More than one million Uighurs and mostly Muslim Turkic minorities have been rounded up in internment camps where they undergo political indoctrination, according to human rights groups and experts.

China contends that the facilities are vocational education centres where Uighurs learn Mandarin and job skills in order to steer them away from extremism following a spate of ethnic violence.

Officials said late last year that all "students" have "graduated".

Chen, who was appointed in 2016, told Xinhua that no violent terrorist incidents have occurred in Xinjiang in nearly four years while living standards have improved.

China has imposed retaliatory sanctions on three senior Republican lawmakers, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as well as the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Sam Brownback.

France slams 'unacceptable' Chinese imprisonment of Uighurs
Paris (AFP) July 21, 2020 –

Paris on Tuesday said the imprisonment of ethnic and religious minorities in China's western Xinjiang region is "unacceptable" and demanded that Beijing let independent human rights observers visit the area.

Rights groups and experts estimate that more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities have been rounded up into a network of internment camps.

"France is closely following all the testimonies relayed by the press and through human rights organisations," Foreign Affairs minister Jean-Yves le Drian told parliament.

"According to information that we read or have, there are imprisonment camps for Uighurs, mass detentions, disappearances, forced labour, forced sterilisations, the destruction of Uighur heritage," Le Drian said.

"All these actions are unacceptable. We condemn them firmly," added Le Drian, prompting applause in parliament.

He said France wanted China to allow access to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

His comments come as tensions between the West and China are rising over a new draconian security law in Hong Kong and mounting opposition to the use of products made by Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

Earlier this month, the US slapped sanctions on senior Chinese officials, demanding an end to the "horrific" abuse of Uighurs, and on Monday blacklisted 11 Chinese firms for alleged complicity in the repression.

On Sunday, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused Beijing of "gross, egregious human rights abuses".

Beijing denies any wrongdoing, saying Uighurs are attending vocational training centres, and has imposed retaliatory sanctions on three US senators.