Xi, UN rights chief talk amid Xinjiang row
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video call with UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet yesterday, as she visits Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool.
China’s Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region as part of a yearslong crackdown the United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a “genocide”.
As part of a long-awaited visit Ms Bachelet is expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour that has been dogged by concerns from Western officials, diplomats and rights groups that the Communist Party will attempt to use it to whitewash abuses.
China vehemently denies the allegations, calling them the “lie of the century”.
The United States has reiterated its view that Ms Bachelet’s visit was a mistake after the release of thousands of leaked documents and photographs from inside the system of mass incarceration this week.
And activists have voiced concern that Beijing will prevent Ms Bachelet from conducting a thorough probe into alleged rights abuses and instead give her a stage-managed tour.
But Mr Xi defended his country’s human rights progress during the video call, according to a readout from state broadcaster CCTV which did not say whether Xinjiang was mentioned by either side.
“Human rights issues should also not be politicised, instrumentalised, or treated with double standards,” Mr Xi said according to CCTV, adding that China has “a human rights development path that... suits its national conditions”.
CCTV reported Mr Xi as telling Ms Bachelet that there is no “ideal nation” on human rights.
He added that there is “no need for a ‘teacher’ who is bossy towards other countries” — an apparent reference to recent public criticisms of the trip by United States and British officials.
In addition to mass detentions, Beijing is waging a campaign of forced labour, sterilisation and the destruction of Uighur culture in Xinjiang, researchers and campaigners say.