In response to a request by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to visit China to learn about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and other places, China has responded, saying it is considering granting Bachelet permission to visit China.
China welcomes Bachelet’s visit to China on the condition that the purpose of the visit should not be to condemn China’s policies, said Jiang Duan, the Chinese representative on the UN Human Rights Council Consultative Group, on Tuesday (March 2).
China is one of the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council.
Bachelet said on Friday that reports from multiple sources show human rights problems such as arbitrary detention, abuse and sexual violence in some facilities in Xinjiang, and that “there is a need for an independent and comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation there.”
Bachelet has been working to schedule a visit to China since before he took over the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2018. But that work has been intermittent and has not gone well. Recently, a spokesman for Bachelet’s office said that discussions about preparations were ongoing.
Jiang Tuan countered that Bachelet’s allegations lacked substance. He said that all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet enjoy a wide range of freedoms, including religious and cultural freedom.
Jiang Duan also serves as a minister at the Chinese Mission in Geneva. He told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that China opposes the “politicization” of human rights issues and rejects the concerns raised by Australia, Sweden and the United States.
Jiang Duan said, “The door to Xinjiang is always open, and we welcome the high commissioner to visit Xinjiang.” Jiang Duan confirmed that there is ongoing communication between China and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding Bachelet’s visit to China. He stressed, however, that the visit was for exchange and cooperation, not for a so-called unconfirmed “guilt” investigation.
Bachelet was highly critical of China’s human rights situation at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday. She said that Chinese citizens’ “fundamental rights and civil liberties continue to be suppressed in the name of national security and the fight against epidemics.”
Bachelet cited human rights violations not only in Xinjiang, but also in Hong Kong. In particular, she noted that more than 600 people in Hong Kong are being investigated for participating in protests.
The construction of vast camps in Xinjiang to imprison and persecute the Uighur minority has drawn increasingly close international attention in recent years. Millions of Uighur Muslims are held in what Chinese officials call “vocational training centers” for “ideological reform” and forced labor.
“My team is working to verify the veracity of these materials,” Bachelet said last year, “and we will work to conduct an in-depth analysis of the human rights situation in China, including the situation of the Uighur minority.”
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