China’s UN ambassador has fired back at his US counterpart over her remarks that sending a member of the Uyghur ethnic group to help deliver the Olympic flame was an attempt to distract from the issue of abuses against Muslim minorities.

Ambassador Zhang Jun issued a statement to “resolutely refute” what he called unfounded accusations against China made by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in an interview with CNN.

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Zhang said China’s Winter Olympics team includes 20 athletes from nine ethnic minorities, including Uyghur and Tibetan. China chose cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur, as one of two final Olympic torchbearers at the opening ceremony.

“She is the pride and excellent representative of the Chinese people. On what ground does the US has such inexplicable anger over this? And why?” Zhang said.

China has 174 athletes competing in the Games, mainly drawn from the Han majority that makes up more than 90 percent of the population.

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