Q&A: Chinese diplomat grilled over Uighurs and coronavirus response

Wang Xining stuck to party lines even as ABC panel audience laughed at his claims that Uighurs are voluntarily in 'training centres'

China's number two diplomat in Australia, Wang Xining, has defended shocking footage showing people suspected of having coronavirus being forcibly pushed into vans as justified, and described the detention camps used to hold an estimated one million people, mostly Uighurs, as "training centres" whose residents are "mostly" there voluntarily.

In a rare public appearance on the ABC's Q&A on Monday night, Wang grimly held to party lines even as he was laughed at by audience members for his defence of the Chinese government's treatment of Uighurs and challenged by other panellists over the country's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.