UN chief prepares to visit China, but Beijing refuses any investigation in Xinjiang | Abroad

“China is ready for the arrival of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to China and for her visit to Xinjiang,” said Zhao Lijian, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But Beijing has refused any UN investigation into Xinjiang, saying that any visit to the region must be “friendly”.

Discussions on the subject of a possible visit in the first half of the year are continuing, but it is clear that it will not take place before the start of the Olympic Games, which are scheduled to take place from 4 to 20 February. Bachelet’s spokesman Rupert Colville. The report, which is in the final phase, will not be published immediately. After all, before the report is published, it first passes through the Chinese authorities for comment. Only then will it be made public.

Bachelet has been demanding “meaningful and unimpeded access” to Xinjiang for years. The Human Rights Commissioner also said it was “deeply concerned” about the conclusions drawn by an expert group in its report on the violations of the rights of the Uyghurs, a Turkish-speaking Muslim minority in China. At the time, the experts had no evidence of a massacre against the Uyghurs, yet “the elements of deliberate genocide, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, had been identified,” it said.

According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, Uyghurs in Xinjiang are not only oppressed and discriminated against, but also imprisoned by Beijing in so-called reeducation camps. Beijing denies in all languages: it is about vocational training centers to keep the population away from terrorism and separatism, after numerous deadly attacks blamed on Islamist or separatist Uyghurs.