Since the Tiananmen Square massacre 30 years ago, China has achieved extraordinary economic development. Yet, contrary to the expectations of many Western leaders and analysts, the country has not gradually embraced press freedom or respect for civil rights.

30 years ago this month, I was in Beijing as a British development minister for the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). But what took place at that gathering – including the seating for the first time of a delegation from Taiwan – was overshadowed by what was happening across the city.

For more than two years, China has waged a campaign of unparalleled repression against its Islamic minorities, incarcerating an estimated one-sixth of the adult Muslim population of the Xinjiang region at one point or another.