United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet arrived in China on Monday for a six-day visit in what is the first official trip by an incumbent to the Asian nation since 2005.
The main point of the script is Xinjiang, where the communist regime led by Xi Jinping is accused of repressing Muslim minorities such as the Uighurs. The US government, for example, accuses Beijing of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in the region.
The high commissioner is expected to visit local detention centers that, in all, hold more than a million Uighurs. Asked about the matter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that Beijing will facilitate the visit to “promote the development of the international cause of human rights.” He added, however, that the regime opposes “using the matter for political manipulation”.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, are demanding that Bachelet, the former president of Chile, take a more critical stance on the way the Chinese regime treats the Uighurs. The US even spoke out, claiming to be concerned about “silence in the face of indisputable evidence of atrocities in Xinjiang”.
Wenbin said that the press will not be able to follow the UN official’s trip – something that, according to the diplomat’s spokesman, was agreed by both parties. The justification, he said, is the Covid pandemic, which has led China to put important financial and social regions, such as the city of Shanghai, under strict lockdown.
The visit, however, has been met with skepticism by those who internationally denounce the plight of local Muslim minorities. Activists say Beijing could use the United Nations’ presence to show only details of the situation and thus cover up greater suspicions of crimes committed.
“There is no longer much visible evidence of repression,” Peter Irwin of the Uighur Human Rights Project told AFP. He claims that Xinjiang, after a massive wave of incarceration and street repression, would now be focusing on local economic development.
Local groups also say that constant state surveillance and fear of reprisals can prevent Uighur citizens from speaking openly to UN staff. “We fear that the visit will be manipulated by the Chinese regime,” said Maya Wang, a researcher at ONH Human Rights Watch.
The US institute Freedom House, which describes China as an “unfree” country in terms of democracy and political and civil rights, says that the detention of more than a million Uighurs in prisons and forced labor camps limits birth rates. .
“Women from Uighur and other Muslim groups, especially those with two or more children, are being subjected to a program of forced sterilization,” reads an excerpt from the institute’s latest report.
China denies repressing Uighurs in Xinjiang and describes the accusations as “the lie of the century”. The regime claims that policies in the region have made it possible to combat extremism, separatism and religious radicalism and improve the quality of life on the country’s northwest border.
On the official profile of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Twitter, a photo in which Bachelet appears seated next to Chinese officials brings a comment from the Chilean: “We will discuss sensitive and important human rights issues, and I hope this visit will help us work together for the advancement of human rights in China”.
The UN said a team was sent to China a month ago, in the last week of April, to begin investigations. The team stayed in Guangzhou, where they had virtual meetings while complying with the isolation time mandated by Beijing. Afterwards, he held face-to-face conversations with the local population and with people from Xinjiang.
