China dismisses damning UN rights report on Xinjiang as 'patchwork of disinformation'

Beijing: China on Friday brushed aside calls, including from UN chief Antonio Guterres, to implement the UN report accusing Beijing of "serious human rights violations" against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang province, terming it a “patchwork of disinformation” that serves as a political tool for the US and some western forces.

The much-awaited report by outgoing UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who earlier visited Xinjiang after a long diplomatic tussle with Beijing, was released by her in Geneva, much to the surprise of China which had studiously opposed its release.

The UN report said China's "anti-terrorism law system" is "deeply problematic from the perspective of international human rights norms and standards" and "has in practice led to the large-scale arbitrary deprivation of liberty" of Uygurs and other Muslim communities.

“China will steadfastly pursue human rights development with Chinese characteristics and continue to make human rights development in China and the whole world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here.

He was replying to a question on Guterres's comment that Beijing should “take on board the recommendations” made in the report of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights of the United Nations (OHCHR) released on Wednesday.

China on Thursday termed the report by Bachelet as “illegal and null and void”.

“The so-called assessment is orchestrated and produced by the US and some western forces. It is completely illegal and null and void," another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

On Friday, Zhao said the 45-page assessment “is a patchwork of disinformation. This serves as a political tool for the US and some western forces which orchestrated and produced the assessment”.

About the US and other countries' calls for the implementation of the report, Zhao said: “upon the release of the assessment, a handful of countries cannot wait to make an issue of it, which exposes their sinister agenda to use Xinjiang-related lies to contain China. This shows that they are the sources behind this false assessment,” he said.

The White House slammed China for its continued violation of human rights against minority communities in Xinjiang and has called for the implementation of the report.

White House Press Secretary Karen Jean-Pierre, during her daily news conference, welcomed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report which said China's discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.

"The report deepens our grave concern regarding the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity that China is perpetrating. Our position on the atrocities in Xinjiang has been clearly demonstrated with our words and in our actions," Jean-Pierre said.

"We will continue to work closely with partners and the international community to hold China accountable, and we will call on China to immediately cease committing these atrocities, release those unjustly detained, account for those disappeared, and allow independent investigators full and unhindered access to Xinjiang, Tibet, and across China," she said.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the August 31st report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) outlines in alarming detail the human rights violations and abuses occurring in Xinjiang.

"This report deepens and reaffirms our grave concern regarding the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity that PRC government authorities are perpetrating against Uyghurs, who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang," he said.

Reports from the UN said Secretary General Guterres hoped that China would ‘take on board’ recommendations of the report.

Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric was quoted as saying that the UN Secretary-General was ‘concerned’ by what he read in the report, which cited possible crimes against humanity.

The report by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet “confirms what the secretary-general has been saying on Xinjiang for quite some time, that human rights must be respected and that the Uighur community need to be respected,” Dujarric said.

Reacting to the Guterres remarks, Zhao said “OHCHR has made up the assessment to serve the political agenda of the anti-China forces overseas and it has been reduced to be an enforcer and accomplice of the US and some western forces to force the developing countries to fall into the line”.

He also claimed the mainstream of the international community opposed the release of this assessment and was very concerned about the pressure on the office to release it.

Recently, more than 60 countries wrote to the High Commissioner to emphasise that Xinjiang-related affairs are purely internal affairs of China and they are gravely concerned about the assessment without relevant mandate, Zhao said.

He said the Commission should focus on issues like the genocide of native Americans by the US, women’s rights and hardships caused to countries by unilateral sanctions by certain countries.

“We ask the OHCHR to pay more attention to these issues, raise accountability and release reports on those,” he said.

He also alleged that 80 per cent of the OHCHR jobs are held by the US and western countries which account for less than 10 per cent of the population.

“Due to the political schemes and pressure from anti-China forces the OHCHR has fabricated the assessment which seriously violates the principles of universality and objectivity and no-politicisation,” Zhao said.