UN counterterrorism chief invited by China to visit

The United Nations counterterrorism chief is visiting China this week, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov, the undersecretary-general of the UN counterterrorism office, is in China at the country's invitation, ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

He didn't comment on reports Voronkov is going to the restive Xinjiang region in China's far west.

"More specific information will be released in time," Geng said at a daily briefing.

Human Rights Watch criticised the United Nations for sending a counterterrorism official instead of a human rights expert, saying it risks deflecting attention from what it called "a massive government rights violation against the Turkic Muslim population."