(TibetanReview.net, May27’22) – While China has defended the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s credibility-challenged visit to Xinjiang, President Xi Jinping has defended his country’s record and told her during their May 25 video-call that there was “no need for ‘preachers’ to boss around other countries.”
“On the issue of human rights, no country is perfect, there is no need for ‘preachers’ to boss around other countries, still less should they politicize the issue, practice double standards or use it as an excuse to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” the edition.cnn.com May 25 quoted Xi as saying, citing Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Xi has told Bachelet that China’s human rights development “suits its own national conditions.”
Bachelet has already made it clear that her visit will not be an “investigation” as demanded by China.
She has said she committed to the visit because “it is a priority to engage with the Government of China directly, on human rights issues.”
Still her trip – the first by a UN human rights chief to China since 2005 – has been dogged by questions about her access and freedom to speak with locals unsupervised, raising fears it risks the credibility of her office.
Bachelet was scheduled to visit the cities of Kashgar and Urumqi in Xinjiang. China’s Foreign Ministry said her trip will be conducted in a “closed loop” – meaning her delegation will be isolated inside a “bubble” to contain the potential spread of Covid-19, and no international journalists will be allowed to travel with her.
These and other conditions under which the visit takes place has drawn criticisms from Uyghurs, human right organizations and others, who fear that it may turn out to be a propaganda victory for China.
“We have no expectation that (China) will grant the necessary access required to conduct a complete, unmanipulated assessment of the human rights environment in Xinjiang,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters May 24.
“We think it was a mistake to agree to a visit under the circumstances,” Price had said, adding that Bachelet would not be able to obtain a full picture “of the atrocities, the crimes against humanity, and genocide” in the region.
Amnesty International felt that the visit will be a running battle against Chinese government efforts to cover up the truth and wanted the UN to take steps to “resist being used to support blatant propaganda.”