CHINA: According to a Chinese letter verified by Reuters and three other foreign diplomats who received it, China is apparently requesting that the UN Human Rights Chief remain hush about a scathing report that could expose the incriminating details of its human rights violations in the volatile Xinjiang area.
After UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet visited China in May and received tremendous backlash over her leniency towards China, she announced that she would not run for re-election due to personal reasons.
However, before her departure from her post at the end of August, she has promised to write a brutally- honest report on the western Chinese region of Xinjiang and all the nitty gritty details of Chinese operations there.
Human rights watchdogs have consistently accused Beijing of mistreating the Uyghur Muslim population in that area, including the use of forced labour in internment camps as well as ethnic cleansing. China has vehemently refuted the claims.
According to four verified sources, three diplomats and one rights expert (all of whom spoke in anonymity), the Chinese letter expressed “grave concern” about the Xinjiang report and actively seeks to prevent its circulation. They claimed that in late June, China circulated it among diplomatic missions in Geneva and requested other nations to sign it to demonstrate their support.
Bachelet would have seen “A real Xinjiang with a safe and stable society” when she visited China during her trip in May, a representative of the Chinese Ministry told Reuters.
The spokesperson also predicted that it was a malicious smear-campaign hatched by other nations, especially the West, to drag China’s reputation through the mud by making such bombarding claims of human rights abuse.
ALSO READ: Indo-China Business Auto Industry; Electric Vehicles; Medical Devices
