FM: Human rights top priority
UN official’s trip expected to clear up misinformation by anti-China forces, Wang says
China hopes the visit of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will help clear up misinformation created by some anti-China forces about the nation’s “human rights violations”.
In a meeting with Bachelet on May 23 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that China has always given top priority to ensuring people’s rights to subsistence and development and safeguarding the rights of ethnic minorities.
Wang expressed his hope that Bachelet and her team could take advantage of the visit to comprehensively learn about China’s development philosophy, path and achievements as well as its efforts and progress in protecting and promoting human rights.
It is the first time in 17 years that China has hosted a UN high commissioner for human rights. The six-day visit, which began on May 23, will take Bachelet and her team to Guangdong and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Some Western countries have claimed that China practices “forced labor” in Xinjiang and accused the country of “violating human rights”. Beijing has on many occasions denied such accusations and has made it clear that the so-called allegations of “forced labor” in Xinjiang are nothing but vicious lies concocted by anti-China forces under the pretext of human rights.
Wang said some countries and antiChina forces are spreading misinformation about China by every means, as part of their attempt to contain the country’s development, and they try to politicize and weaponize human rights.
He told Bachelet that her trip will help enhance cooperation with China, and clear up misinformation.
“To advance the international cause of human rights, we must respect each other and refrain from politicizing human rights, uphold fairness and justice and reject double standards, seek truth from facts and take into account national conditions and the development stage of a country, and stay open and inclusive and oppose bloc confrontation,” Wang said.
He said that multilateral human rights institutions should serve as a major venue for cooperation and dialogue rather than as a new battlefield for division and confrontation.
Bachelet congratulated China on its significant achievements in economic and social development and human rights protection, and spoke positively of the country’s contributions in supporting multilateralism, development financing, sustainable development, poverty reduction, climate change, ecological conservation and other areas on the development of human rights.
She expressed the hope that the visit will be an opportunity to enhance mutual understanding and trust between the two sides to jointly deal with global challenges and advance the international human rights cause.
In responding to recent comments by some officials of the United States and the United Kingdom about Bachelet’s China visit, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Wang Wenbin said on May 24 that Western countries, including the US and the UK, have made a “political farce” around the visit.
They publicly pressed the UN high commissioner for human rights to visit China, including Xinjiang, then tried every means to disturb and point fingers at the mission, Wang said.
Their real concern is that the truth witnessed by the UN high commissioner will expose their lies and spoil their attempt to use Xinjiang to contain China, Wang added.
Speaking on May 24, Xu Guixiang, spokesman of the government of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said the regional government will provide any help the high commissioner needs to develop exchanges with people from the region.