China Daily Editorial
The report on human rights conditions in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last week, is nothing but an “illegal document” and “a perverse product of the United States and some other Western forces’ coercive diplomacy”, as the spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations said.
The so-called assessment report was drafted and released without authorization from the Human Rights Council or the consent of the Chinese government, which is a serious violation of the OHCHR’s mandate, simply to provide the anti-China forces in the United States and some other Western countries with a pretext to smear China and spread lies about Xinjiang, constituting a grave interference in China’s internal affairs.
A glance at the report shows that it is a hodgepodge of disinformation and a political tool to serve the US and the West’s strategy of taking advantage of alleged “human rights problems” in Xinjiang to contain China. Its content is based on the presumption of guilt and is mainly fabrications connected by malicious conjectures.
The report contains nothing new, being simply a repetition of the numerous lies told by some performers-turned-witnesses on Washington’s payroll, and it deliberately ignores the authoritative information and materials provided by the Chinese government. Its brazen partiality and biases mean that it has zero credibility.
It seriously violates the OHCHR’s mandate and the principles of universality, objectivity, non-selectivity and non-politicization. And the issuance of the report proves once again that the OHCHR has become an agent and accomplice of the US and its allies.
The eagerness with which some politicians in the US and the United Kingdom have hyped up Xinjiang-related issues after the release of the report has exposed their collusion and its purpose, which has never been to promote the well-being of the Uygur people in Xinjiang, but rather to make the so-called Xinjiang issue a thorn in Beijing’s side.
The report intentionally distorts China’s laws and policies, smears China’s efforts against terrorism, secessionism and extremism in Xinjiang, and diverges significantly from the statement issued by Michelle Bachelet, the then high commissioner for human rights, after her visit to China in May. Bachelet retired from the post on Wednesday, which was also the day when the report was released.
It is good to see that more than 60 countries have sent a co-signed letter to express their concerns about the report. Nearly 1,000 nongovernmental organizations from across the world have also written to the high commissioner to express their opposition.
The issuance of the report has set a bad example of the US hijacking world bodies to advance its own agenda and protect its hegemony. Doing so in the human rights field has seriously tarnished the professionalism and integrity of human rights work and interfered in and undermined international human rights cooperation.
The stability and prosperity of Xinjiang, which is at its best development stage in history, are the best rebuff against such attempts to call white black, and show how effectively China has brought peace, order and development to the region. In recent years, nearly 100 countries have spoken up at the meetings of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council every year to support China’s position on Xinjiang-related issues.
The studied silence of the US and its allies when Xinjiang people, including Uygurs, were the victims of terrorist attacks and when young Uygurs were being brainwashed by extremists and separatists serves to expose the evil nature of their clamor now.
– Courtesy of China Daily
