BEIJING: Twitter said Thursday it has locked the account of the Chinese embassy in the US, over a tweet claiming Uighur women were no longer "baby-making machines" after their minds had been "emancipated".

A Twitter spokesperson told AFP it took action against the tweet for "violating our policy against dehumanization".

More than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in re-education camps in the country's northwestern Xinjiang region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women. China denies the accusations and says the facilities in the region are not camps, but job training centres to steer people away from terrorism.

On January 7, the Chinese embassy in the US tweeted that "in the process of eradicating extremism", the minds of Uighur women "were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines."