China has scolded Australia's foreign minister for daring to suggest Beijing should be called out over human rights abuses.
"Such ill-advised remarks will not help to improve or grow relations with China," Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday.
"We have lodged stern representations to the Australian side and pointed out the inappropriate nature of her conduct."
In a speech to the US Studies Centre in Sydney this week, Marise Payne said it was important for Australia to lead by example by calling out instances where human rights are abused.
Australia has called out Saudi Arabia's human rights violations, Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority and China's repression of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
At least a million Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps in the remote Xinjiang region.
In an implicit criticism of Chinese accusations of domestic meddling, Senator Payne also said speaking out "does not constitute interference in another country".
Senator Payne's comments come as Australia, along with 22 other countries, condemned China to the United Nations for its treatment of the Uighurs.
"The human rights records of the US, the UK and some other countries are nothing to be proud of," Mr Shuang said.
"What they need is a proper self-reflection. We advise them to take off the mask of 'human rights guardians', stop politicising the human rights issue and applying double standards."
Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen said it was "right and proper" for the foreign minister to raise human rights issues.
"Marise Payne has a job to do representing Australia, standing up not only for our national interests but also our values, and I think on this occasion she's done so and she's done so appropriately," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney.
