The European Union's top diplomat on Thursday welcomed a damning United Nations report into China's crackdown on the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region.
EU High Representative Josep Borrell said the UN report recounts rights violations in China that could amount to "crimes against humanity".
The Chinese government has condemned the report by the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as the work of a "thug and accomplice of the US and the West".
But Borrell paid tribute to the outgoing UN high commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, for her "leadership and tireless efforts in defending the rights of all."
Brussels has been highly critical of China's actions in Xinjiang in the past, but Borrell did not take the opportunity of the UN report to take a tougher line.
Instead, his statement -- issued in his own name and not as a joint response from the 27 EU member states -- carefully stuck to the UN's wording.
"As the report states, the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region requires urgent attention by the Chinese government, the United Nations, in particular its human rights bodies, as well as the international community more broadly," he said.
"The EU joins the call by UN experts reporting to the Human Rights Council to closely monitor, report, and assess the human rights situation in China."
