The allegations are massive: persecution of Uyghurs, Tibetans or civil rights activists – human rights violations and forced labor. What will the UN human rights commissioner find out in China?
The visit was preceded by a fierce tug-of-war: For the first time in 17 years, Michelle Bachelet, a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is visiting China this week.
Human rights groups warn they risk “walking into a minefield of propaganda laid out by the Chinese Communist Party”. Will the Chinese side use their visit to “whitewash” human rights violations, as critics fear? Or how can Bachelet credibly investigate such violations and the persecution of Uyghurs, Tibetans and other members of minorities?
The US government was “deeply concerned” that China could restrict its necessary access that would be required for “a comprehensive and unmanipulated assessment of the human rights situation”. In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price also criticized the UN official for her “continued silence in the face of undeniable evidence of atrocities in the northwest region of Xinjiang and other human rights violations and abuses throughout the People’s Republic of China, which is very worrying.”
Invitation already three years old
The former Chilean President had had a Chinese invitation since 2019. However, Beijing did not want to agree to their terms. This includes unhindered and unsupervised access to interlocutors who wanted to choose their office themselves. When Bachelet announced the long-delayed trip in March, officials made it clear that China ultimately wanted to meet the demands. Bachelet can talk to whoever she wants, and without the supervision of Chinese officials, it said in Geneva.
But human rights defenders and exile groups do not believe the assurances, relying rather on a carefully orchestrated travel program in Beijing’s interests. The Covid pandemic, which has triggered the worst wave of infections in China in two years with new outbreaks, offers many reasons and excuses for denying access or spontaneously desired changes, as critics emphasize. While her advance team had to be in quarantine for 17 days upon entry, an exception is made for Bachelet as a high-ranking politician.
Bachelet will visit Xinjiang where, according to human rights activists, hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uyghurs and members of other minorities have been put in re-education camps. The ruling Han Chinese accuse the Uyghurs of extremism, separatism or even terrorism, while the Turkic people feel politically, economically and religiously oppressed. After taking power in Beijing in 1949, the communists incorporated the former East Turkestan into the People’s Republic.
journey overshadowed
The journey is also overshadowed by arguments, of which Bachelet is not entirely innocent. Months ago, her office was due to deliver a much-anticipated report on Xinjiang. As early as 2018, in her first speech to the UN Human Rights Council, she spoke of “deeply disturbing allegations of arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim communities (…) in so-called re-education camps throughout Xinjiang”. The office brought together information from experts and those affected from all over the world.
The material is rich: the independent human rights reporters appointed by the United Nations itself have repeatedly expressed concern about the mistreatment of Uyghurs. In the spring of 2021, they reported that they had been told cases of forced labor in factories. As always, the reply from the Chinese side came immediately: the ethnic minorities in China stand together “like the seeds of a pomegranate,” said embassy spokesman Liu Yunyin in Geneva, adding: “China is a model student worldwide when it comes to protecting minority rights.”
Bachelet’s report was ready last year. However, the publication was repeatedly postponed. Observers suspected pressure from China, which wanted to prevent an announcement before the Winter Olympics in Beijing or before their visit, as it was said. Bachelet’s actions were perceived as deference to Beijing, which brought her a lot of criticism. With the trip to China, not only is their own credibility at stake from the perspective of activists, but also that of the human rights system of the United Nations, in which China is asserting its influence as a veto power in the Security Council.
Source: Stern
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