A German researcher is facing multiple lawsuits by businesses and individuals from Xinjiang in northwestern China, for claiming that members of the Uyghur ethnic minority are subject to forced labor.

The lawsuits against Adrian Zenz are endorsed by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, who condemns the German for “spreading anti-China rumors” and misleading foreign governments. People and businesses in Xinjiang had “suffered great losses” as a result of Zenz’s smearing campaign, Zhao said at a Tuesday news briefing.

The lawsuits, filed locally in Xinjiang, seek apologies and financial compensation from Zenz, according to a Monday report by the state-run news outlet Tianshannet.

The claimants disputed a report he wrote in December for the United States-based Center for Global Policy, in which he claimed that hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority laborers in Xinjiang were “being forced to pick cotton by hand.”

Zenz told Bloomberg that the legal action did not bother him. “It’s really rattling them … It’s important to see that my research is having a real impact,” he said.

Separately, 55 Chinese diaspora groups in the Netherlands have issued a joint statement condemning the Dutch parliament for passing a motion calling the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China a genocide. The term “genocide” was initially used in January by then U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo as a parting shot at China, to describe the crackdown on Uyghurs and other Xinjiang minorities.

Last month, the Netherlands became the first European country to use the label. “A genocide on the Uyghur minority is occurring in China,” the non-binding motion read.

The Chinese diaspora groups questioned whether the Dutch politicians had been to Xinjiang and seen the human rights abuses firsthand.

“A minority of Dutch parliamentarians pulled a malicious stunt ahead of the elections, as a way of gaining political capital for themselves,” they wrote in a statement published in the Chinese-language paper United Times.

“[The motion] flies in the face of facts and common sense, and is a deliberate attempt to smear China and interfere in China’s domestic affairs.”

Activists and United Nations experts have said at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. China has denied any human rights abuses in Xinjiang and said its camps provide vocational and anti-extremism training.

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