SINN Féin has condemned the Chinese government's human rights abuses after South Down MP Chris Hazzard praised the Beijing regime.
The party moved to clarify its stance on the persecution of the mostly Muslim Uighur people after the former Stormont infrastructure minister tweeted his support for the Chinese government's claim that it has eradicated poverty.
The weekend social media post led to widespread criticism and ridicule of the South Down representative.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said last week his country has reached the ambitious goal set when he assumed office in 2012 of lifting 100 million people out of poverty.
However, critics have pointed to Chinese government's poor human rights record, particularly its treatment of the mostly Muslim Uighur people, while there is also some dispute over how Beijing defines poverty.
"Great to see President Xi has announced the end of absolute poverty in China this week," Mr Hazzard tweeted.
"China has spent more than ¥1.6trillion in this historic endeavour including 10 million new homes and 25 million renovated homes."
The Sinn Féin MP said President Xi had vowed to eradicate health inequalities, accompanied by "#Solidarity".
The Chinese Embassy in Ireland's Twitter account welcomed Mr Hazzard's support, responding with a quote from Nelson Mandela.
Last year First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill sought to distance themselves from the Chinese Consulate in Belfast's account of a video call in which the Stormont leaders supposedly endorsed Beijing's draconian new security law imposed on Hong Kong.
Justice Minister Naomi Long described the Sinn Féin MP's tweet as "absolutely disgraceful pandering".
"An authoritarian regime guilty of human rights abuses against the Uighur people, restricting religious and political freedom, suppressing free speech, free press ad democracy is not to be believed, let alone praised, based on its own propaganda," she tweeted.
Amnesty International's Patrick Corrigan tweeted "#Solidarity with the Uighur and Kazakh Muslims of Xinjiang, a million of whom have been put in mass internment camps for 're-education' at Xi’s direction."
Victims campaigner Ann Travers, whose sister Mary was shot dead by the IRA in 1984, said: "Sinn Féin are praising an authoritarian regime whose people are ordered what they can and can not do including using social media.
"Also guilty of terrible human rights abuses . A secretive government. Guess this is what you can expect if SF manage to get into government in ROI."
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said: "It is inexplicable that an MP would choose this moment - when global concern is growing over the appalling treatment of ethnic Uighurs to effectively amplify propaganda from the Chinese government.
"There is nothing left wing or progressive about amplifying authoritarianism."
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said the party was "opposed to the suppression of any ethnic or religious grouping on the basis of their culture or belief system".
Beijing's campaign against the Uighurs was described as a "gross breach of human rights".
"Sinn Féin has raised our concerns with the Irish government and with the Chinese ambassador," the spokesperson said.
"Sinn Féin will continue to campaign to highlight the plight of those who face persecution, are subject to coercion in any form and continue to be denied basic human rights.”
