The National Party says the Government must enact an abandoned sanctions law that could be used to target Chinese officials over the abuse of the Uyghur minority.

The party's foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee​ on Wednesday told Stuff it’s time for China to open up Xinjiang, a western province, to a United Nations (UN) team to inspect human rights abuse of the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Brownlee said he has heard directly from the Chinese ambassador to New Zealand that such access would be provided.

But in the meantime, he said the Government needed to pass a law that would allow it to unilaterally place sanctions which would only be vetoed by China in the UN.

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Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Tuesday issued a joint statement with her Australian counterpart, supporting an effort by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and Canada to sanction officials in Xinjiang and calling on China to provide “unfettered access” to UN experts.

But despite stating firmly that there was “clear evidence of severe human rights abuses”, New Zealand could not join the effort as it lacked the legal mechanisms to unilaterally apply such sanctions outside the United Nations framework.

The Government in 2020 abandoned the National Party’s Autonomous Sanctions Bill, which had lingered in the halls of Parliament for years, and would have created such an independent sanctions regime.

Mahuta said it was not a mistake to abandon the Autonomous Sanctions Bill, “because we do rely primarily on the United Nations as our guide to inform at the highest level what action can be taken”.

She said she was not considering any similar legislation.

Brownlee said it appeared the Government was more keen on taking a multi-lateral approach to sanctions, but “in this case you've got the United Nations, with the Security Council that has China sitting on it with a veto”.

“We don't have the legislation in place. Australia has said that they'll do it later this year. My point is that we've got this legislation, which the current government dropped off the order paper after a very long time, that would be now quite useful,” he said.

“Their proviso is, at the moment, 'Well it's a little unsafe because of terrorist threats and Covid-19'. Well I think the people that are likely to be on a mission like that will be well capable of protecting themselves against Covid-19 and have very little fear of terrorist activity.”

The Chinese Embassy in Wellington issued a statement in response to New Zealand’s call for a UN investigation into the well-documented abuse of the Uyghur.

The statement consisted of standard Chinese foreign ministry assertions denying the abuse, and a claim that “the door to Xinjiang is always open”.