Western countries pressed China to stop the alleged mass internment of Uighur Muslims, as the UN Human Rights Council reviewed the overall situation in the country on Tuesday.
Beijing should "cease the arbitrary detention of Uighurs and other Muslim groups" in China's western Xinjiang region, an Australian envoy said.
The Geneva-based council met to examine China's human rights record, under its Universal Periodic Review process that looks at each country every four and a half years.
Reports by human rights advocacy groups indicate that up to 1 million Uighurs have been interned in camps in the past year, where they are taught Communist propaganda and forced to renounce their culture and religion.
Le Yucheng, a Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, did not directly address the concerns in his opening statement.
"We protect the rights of ethnic minorities in accordance with the law," he said.
"Citizens' freedoms of speech and of religious belief have been protected in accordance with the law," he stated.
Several countries including Canada and Belgium asked Beijing to release Muslims who have been unlawfully detained.
China should "end prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief," Canada's envoy said.
Last month, the Xinjiang region amended its law to allow education and training centres to combat religious extremism.
China's government previously denied that internment camps existed in Xinjiang, a region that saw deadly clashes between Uighurs and the Han ethnic majority in 2009 and terrorist attacks in 2014.
Xinjiang is home to about 10 million Uighurs.
