China’s defence of its ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang

The Chinese government reacted furiously to the release of a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on August 31, calling it “wholly illegal and invalid.”

Michelle Bachelet released the 46-page report on her last day in office, in fact, just 13 minutes before she stepped down from her four-year tenure. The report is titled “OHCHR Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China.”

Bachelet had secretly given China a preview of the report before it was published, and on the very day it was released, parts of the UN document were allegedly being rewritten to accommodate Chinese requests. Thanks to this preview, China immediately published its own 131-page refutation. It claimed: “This so-called ‘assessment’ runs counter to the mandate” of Bachelet’s office and “distorts China’s laws and policies, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs.”

An angry Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the UN report was “planned and manufactured first-hand by the US and some Western forces” and was a “hodgepodge of misinformation” and “a political tool.” Bachelet conducted a highly contrived visit to Xinjiang in May, where she visited a decommissioned “training center” that now serves as a school.