"Particularly, Hungary’s position blocking the discussion on China’s human rights abuses and the Uyghur genocide is of concern, as well as the recent news on the China-Europe Railway Express, a train set to transport agricultural goods produced by Uyghur forced labour which left East Turkistan for Salerno, Italy on May 3," WUC said in a statement.

"In light of the EU forced labour regulation and due diligence directive, products made by forced labour, produced inside and outside the EU and companies involved in these violations through their supply chains will face bigger scrutiny. Yet, one thing that is significantly missing is the focus on Uyghur forced labour. France should nevertheless raise China’s state-import forced labour scheme and advocate for a strengthening of EU’s trade tools against these violations," the statement said.

The WUC asked Macron and von der Leyen to explicitly raise Beijing’s abuses against Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and Uyghurs and take a strong stance against the CCP’s growing transnational repression, which endangers the lives of the community’s diaspora and the security and sovereignty of European nations.

Xi Jinping recently visited France and met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

“France has the obligation to raise the continuous human rights abuses committed by the Chinese regime inside East Turkistan, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as across Europe with China’s growing transnational repression,” expressed World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa ahead of Xi's visit to France.