Chinese envoy to the United Nations has sternly refuted the allegations of “genocide” made by the US and the UK over human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region, after the two countries took a Security Council meeting on international law and maintaining peace and security as a chance to attack China on Xinjiang-related issues.
They have also called on another “investigative” trip to Xinjiang on Thursday after they found that the UN human rights chief’s recent visit to Xinjiang had failed to support their “genocide” fallacies about the region.
Dai Bing, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, refuted the US’ “lies of the century” during his speech at the UN Security Council open debate in connection with “strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of international law” on Thursday.
As a saying goes – “to hide one lie, a thousand lies are needed,” Dai said, pointing out that the US and the UK, while fearing that their lies of “genocide” and “forced labor” might be seen through by the international community, have been telling more and more lies to slander China and mislead the world.
No amount of such lies of the US can negate the fact that Xinjiang enjoys stability and prosperity and the people live in peace and happiness. And anyone who has ever visited China’s Xinjiang region would flat out disagree with the US allegations, which would further expose the nature of the West of politicizing human rights issues and their political agenda of using Xinjiang-related issues to contain China, Dai said.
The Chinese envoy to the UN also wondered whether individuals and countries like the US and the UK that openly tell lies, spread misleading information and smear other countries should be held accountable.
At Thursday’s open debate, Uzro Zeya, Under-Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights of the US, claimed it must not lose sight of atrocities in other countries around the world, including Syria and China. James Kariuki from the UK claimed that Chinese authorities did not provide full and unfettered access of Xinjiang to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
However, Bachelet herself did not bring up related talks during her video interviews at the Thursday event. The High Commissioner had just concluded her trip to Xinjiang, during which she visited Kashi prison and a vocational education and training center which had been closed after all the trainees graduated, and spoke to former trainees there. She also interacted with civil society organizations, academics, and community and religious leaders.
It was the US and the anti-China forces in the country that had enthusiastically pushed for Bachelet’s visit to China’s Xinjiang region. However, after the High Commissioner’s trip to China finally took place at the end of May and she found nothing similar to the US’ allegations of “genocide” and “forced labor,” the US and the UK abandoned her and started to question the validity of the High Commissioner’s work. Furthermore, they continued their pressure campaign on international organizations and have since called for other “investigation” trips to China on a “presumption of guilt” basis.
Also on Thursday, at a meeting of the International Labor Organization, the US, the UK and some of their followers called on the ILO to set up a mission for another trip to Xinjiang to probe the alleged “labor abuses,” Reuters reported.
US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Sheba Crocker, called for China to accept the mission to investigate what she described as “systemic violations of labor and human rights,” while the UK’s envoy asked for the trip to be conducted before the next major ILO conference in 2023.
Chinese observers see the push for an ILO investigation in Xinjiang as another trap set by the US and the UK.
Jia Chunyang, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Friday that the US and the UK intended to keep on hyping Xinjiang issues after Bachelet’s Xinjiang visit, especially after results from the UN High Commissioner’s visit were a disappointment to them.
Jia noted that China welcomes friendly visits to the region and has received diplomats and scholars from all over the world. However, China will not welcome an “investigation” based on the presumption of guilt.
If China refuses a visit, the US and other anti-China forces are likely to find new excuses to hype the issue, and if China were to accept it, they would continue to make unreasonable demands and manipulate the investigation results, which further cement their smears against China, Jia warned.
