The European Parliament awarded its annual Sakharov Prize for the defense of human rights on Thursday to jailed ethnic Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, angering Beijing, which called him a criminal and a terrorist.
Uighur rights advocate Tohti was jailed for life in China in 2014 on separatism charges that were widely denounced at the time in Western capitals.
The European Parliament chose him for his activity to foster dialogue between Chinese people and the mostly Muslim Uighur minority who live in China's western region of Xinjiang.