THE Chinese foreign ministry has dismissed Pope Francis's criticism of China's treatment of Muslim Uighurs as groundless. In a new book "Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future," Pope Francis said: "I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi." It was the first time he had called China's Uighurs a persecuted people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected his characterisation of the Uighurs. "The Chinese government has always protected the legal rights of ethnic minorities equally," he told a media briefing.…