China has blamed disinformation and political objectives by national governments for undermining the work of the UN's Human Rights Council.

In a statement delivered on behalf of a group of like-minded countries, China's representative Jiang Duan said the work of the body was being compromised and accused experts working on its behalf of relying on media reports and unauthenticated information in their reporting.

"These acts severely ... run counter to the principles of universality, impartiality and objectivity of the work of the Human Rights Council, and will only misdirect the work of international human rights mechanisms and undermine their reputation," Jiang said. The statement was co-signed by Zimbabwe, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Laos, DPRK, Belarus, Venezuela, Iran, Sri Lanka and Syria.

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In March a group of experts appointed by the UN body expressed concern over the treatment of minority Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China. As they had been unable to visit the area in person, they cited sources and noted "allegations" which were rigorously denied by Beijing. In today's statement Jiang urged those producing reports to "respect" the word of governments in their work.

China has previously accused countries including the UK, U.S. and Australia of spreading disinformation in response to criticism of its policies in Xinjiang.