The world public is shocked by the recent revelations about the situation of the Uyghurs in China. The United Nations is sending a representative to the country. In a joint discussion, however, President Xi Jinping wants to identify a “suitable” development of human rights.
China’s President Xi Jinping defended the human rights situation in his country in a video conference with UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet. “Human rights issues should not be politicized, instrumentalized or treated with double standards,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The “development of human rights” in China “fits with the national conditions,” Xi said accordingly. Bachelet is currently in China and plans to visit the western Xinjiang region as well.
The government in Beijing has been accused by human rights organizations of having interned more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education camps” in the far western region of the country. Beijing is accused, among other things, of forced sterilization and forced labour. China dismisses the accusations as the “lie of the century”.
Xinjiang was not named in the CCTV report. Accordingly, Xi said in an interview with Bachelet that there is no “ideal nation” when it comes to human rights. Apparently citing recent critical statements from the US and UK, Xi said there was “no need for a ‘teacher’ bossing other countries around.”
According to CCTV, speaking to Xi, Bachelet said the UN human rights office wants to “intensify its cooperation with the Chinese side” and “make joint efforts to advance human rights development globally.” According to China’s state-run television station, Bachelet said when speaking with Xi, “I admire China’s efforts and achievements in eradicating poverty, protecting human rights and realizing economic and social development.”
The US government was shocked on Tuesday by the latest revelations about human rights violations in Xinjiang. An international media consortium had previously published further evidence of the mass internment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Photos, speeches and instructions from the authorities proved there, among other things, torture and the existence of a shooting order.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Bachelet is also traveling to Xinjiang this week to see the situation on the ground. It is the first visit by a UN human rights commissioner to the country in 17 years. However, human rights organizations and the US government are skeptical that Bachelet will be given the necessary free and unsupervised access to camps, detention centers and their inmates so that she can make an independent and unbiased assessment.
