China official media blasts U.S. Uighur bill, calls for reprisals
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese official media excoriated the United States and called for harsh reprisals in editorials on Thursday after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation requiring a stronger response to Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority.

FILE PHOTO: A Chinese police officer takes his position by the road near what is officially called a vocational education centre in Yining in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
The commentaries follow warnings from China on Wednesday that the legislation could affect bilateral cooperation, including a near-term deal to end the two countries’ trade war.

A front-page editorial in the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper said the passage of the U.S. legislation “harbors evil intent and is extremely sinister”.

“Underestimating the determination and will of the Chinese people is doomed to fail,” it said.

By a vote of 407 to 1, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the Uighur bill, which would require the Trump administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown in Xinjiang, a region in China’s far west.

U.N. experts and activists say China has detained possibly one million Uighurs in mass detention camps in Xinjiang.

China says the camps are part of an anti-terror crackdown and are providing vocational training. It denies any mistreatment of Uighurs.

The English-language China Daily called the bill a “stab in the back, given Beijing’s efforts to stabilize the already turbulent China-U.S. relationship”.