Human rights assessment has ‘zero credibility’, stems from ‘coercion’ by the West

Local residents walk in a street at a scenic spot in the ancient city of Kashgar, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, May 16, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

China hit back on Sept 1 at a United Nations report on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, saying that it was a mishmash of disinformation and a political tool to exploit Xin-jiang to contain China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remarks after the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, on Aug 31 issued a so-called assessment of human rights concerns in Xinjiang.

“The report was planned and manufactured firsthand by the US and some Western forces, and is totally illegal and invalid,” Wang said.

He said the US and some Western countries went to great lengths to pressure the OHCHR to release the report, and their schemes would be unpopular and lead nowhere.

As the OHCHR compiled the report based on the political motives of some anti-China forces, Wang said it seriously ran counter to the mandate of the OHCHR and violated the principles of universality, objectivity, non-selectivity and the non-politicization of human rights.

“It once again proves that the OHCHR has been reduced to being the accomplice and enforcer of the US and other Western countries to force developing countries to fall in line with them,” Wang said.

The report could not be said to represent the United Nations, let alone the international community, Wang said, adding that opposition to the report was the mainstream viewpoint in the global community.

A spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations also denounced the OHCHR report, describing it as “an illegal document through and through”.

The so-called assessment was drafted and released without authorization from the Human Rights Council or consent from the Chinese government, which is a serious violation of the OHCHR’s mandate, the spokesperson said on Sept 1.

“The assessment is based on the presumption of guilt. It takes the words of a few anti-China separatists as the main source of information, while deliberately ignoring the authoritative information and materials provided by the Chinese government, and therefore has zero credibility.”

The assessment distorts China’s laws and policies, smears China’s efforts against terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang, and diverges significantly from the statement issued by the UN high commissioner for human rights after her visit to China, the spokesperson added.

“It has seriously tarnished the professionalism and integrity of human rights work and interfered in and undermined international human rights cooperation.”

Former UN high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet, who released the Aug 31 assessment, paid a six-day visit to China and its Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in late May.

At the end of her trip, Bachelet — whose term as commissioner ended on Aug 31 after release of the report — released a statement and said the visit was “an opportunity to hold direct discussions” with China’s most senior leaders on human rights, to listen to each other, raise concerns and explore more regular meaningful interactions in the future.

The spokesperson for China’s UN mission stressed on Sept 1 that the assessment of the human rights situation in Xinjiang is “a perverse product of the US and some other Western forces’ coercive diplomacy”. Faced with “coercion” by some individual Western forces toward the high commissioner and the OHCHR, “a few members of the office have bent over backward to comply with their demands”, the spokesperson said.

“Facts have clearly shown that the US and some other Western forces do not care about human rights but only use human rights issues as a pretext to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and put their own interests above the interests of others. They have become the biggest saboteur of international rules and order,” the spokesperson said, adding that the so-called assessment is “totally inconsistent” with the actual situation in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is a place that once suffered greatly from terrorist attacks. But due to the efforts against terrorism and extremism in accordance with the law, the region has not had any terrorist incidents in the past five years, and the human rights of people of all ethnic groups have been well protected, the spokesperson said.

“Fabricating the so-called assessment and throwing mud at China cannot cover up the US and some other Western forces’ own human rights woes.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang noted that Xinjiang has in recent years enjoyed steady economic growth, social harmony and stability, and improved livelihoods, with a thriving culture, and freedom of religious belief and harmony.

Foreign friends who have visited Xinjiang all said that they saw a completely different Xinjiang from that described by Western media and anti-China forces, he said.

He pointed out that nearly 100 countries, including Muslim nations, have at various meetings of the UN Human Rights Council and on other public occasions expressed their support for China’s legitimate position on Xinjiang-related issues.

“People of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are in the best position to tell the world what the human rights situation is like in Xinjiang,” Wang said, adding that China will continue to firmly follow the path of human rights with Chinese characteristics.

Contact the writers at zhaojia@chinadaily.com