Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi claimed through the UN Human Rights Council platform on 22 February that “genocide, forced labor and religious oppression have never existed” in Xinjiang, and that China welcomed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang. However, China has never explained its “say one thing, do another” approach of “welcome but control”. Uighurs who have fled overseas have accused Wang Yi of blatantly lying and “insulting the intelligence of the international community.
At the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council, where delegates were focused on condemning the military coup in Myanmar, Wang Yi, who participated via video link, spoke on camera without blushing or gasping about China’s consistent official rhetoric on Xinjiang.
“There has never been any genocide, forced labor or religious oppression in Xinjiang. These sensationalist claims, which stem from ignorance and prejudice, are purely malicious political speculation and are completely contrary to the facts.” Wang Yi claimed.
Wang also said that China’s anti-violence and anti-secession efforts on border-related issues are “borrowed from similar practices in other countries” and are so-called “de-extremism in accordance with the law. He added that this is fully in line with the principles and spirit of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
British foreign minister slams scale of Xinjiang crackdown beyond bottom line
Following Wang Yi’s remarks, other countries present at the same meeting stepped forward with blunt rebuttals. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “The situation in Xinjiang has ‘gone beyond the bottom line,’ with many acts of persecution, including forced labor and forced sterilization of women, which, judging by the reports, have been ‘massive. ‘. We have a shared responsibility to ensure that this does not continue to happen.”
Raab did not use the word “genocide” to describe the situation in Xinjiang, but he also expressed Britain’s concerns about the situation in Hong Kong and Tibet.
The UN system has been criticized for years for the Human Rights Council’s inability to defend human rights and for its rigid system.
The UN’s inability to defend human rights has made it an accomplice to China’s human rights crackdown?
China was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for the fifth Time late last year. China is deeply involved in the international system, yet it is trying to change the international community, increasingly running counter to the desire of many countries to see China become more responsible and abide by international rules. A whistle blower at the UN has questioned whether the UN system has long been an accomplice to China’s human rights abuses.
In an interview last year, UN human rights official Emma Reilly pointed out that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has long provided Chinese officials with a list of Chinese dissidents who will be attending the UN Human Rights Council meeting upon China’s request. Reilly argued that this is a violation of UN regulations.
OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville replied at the time that this was indeed the case, but said there was no evidence that it posed a threat to the safety of human rights activists.
Uighurs criticize Wang for humiliating human intelligence
Before leaving office, former President Trump announced that the United States had found China’s practices in Xinjiang to be a “genocide” and a “crime against humanity,” and Secretary of State Blinken of the current Biden administration stated during his nomination hearings He agreed with the Trump Administration‘s judgment.
A growing number of international media outlets and fleeing Uighurs and Kazakhs have come forward with allegations of conditions in Xinjiang’s re-Education camps and even the sexual abuse of women. However, a new opinion piece in the latest issue of British media outlet The Economist magazine suggests that the term “genocide” should be used more critically by the international community. The article argues that China’s horrific practices in Xinjiang are not genocide, which has led to criticism and discussion.
Wang Yi’s denial is a public insult to the intelligence of the international community, and the Chinese government continues to use international platforms to justify its extreme policies and genocidal atrocities after a great deal of evidence has come to light,” Dirichati, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, told Radio Free Asia.
Regarding genocide, as defined in Article II of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part, by committing one of the following acts, namely: 1. killing members of the group; 2. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 3. intentionally inflicting on the group conditions of Life calculated to bring about its destruction 4. imposing methods intended to prevent the birth of children within the group; or 5. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, is genocide.
In addition to the U.K., including German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who criticized China’s actions in Xinjiang in a video message to the U.N. Human Rights Council, “Given our identification with the Declaration of Human Rights, including [China’s] arbitrary detention of minorities in Xinjiang and the oppression of people’s rights to freedom in Hong Kong, these are zero tolerance and we will not be silent.”
Wang Yi’s promise to open up the international community to free and unfettered access to Xinjiang Can he deliver?
At the UN Human Rights Council meeting, Wang Yi also claimed that the door to Xinjiang is always open and that China welcomes visits to Xinjiang by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. However, Wang Yi did not explain when the UNHRC’s request for unrestricted access to Xinjiang to conduct an independent investigation, which was made back in 2018, would be fulfilled.
China initially denied the existence of so-called concentration camps in Xinjiang and later claimed that those ‘re-education camps’ were ‘vocational training centers’ to eliminate extremism and violent terrorism; when outsiders criticized that the re-education camps were a ‘genocide’ against ethnic minorities of the Muslim faith, Chinese officials claimed that all vocational training centers had been completed and that people could leave voluntarily. “
If Xinjiang is really as socially safe and stable as Wang Yi claims, with development continuing to improve and people living and working in peace and happiness, when will the international community be free to visit Xinjiang unfettered and let the outside world see for itself?
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