Tag: Human Rights and Human Rights Violations

U.N. Report on Xinjiang Human Rights May Be Delayed Again

Chin@Strategy

GENEVA — The United Nations top human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, has signaled that she might not release a long-awaited report about allegations of abuses in China’s far western region of Xinjiang before she leaves office next week, as she had promised. The delay of that report, which Beijing has worked to block, has already exposed her to fierce criticism from human rights groups. Four years after academics, activists and independent U.N. experts first sounded the alarm over reports that China had arbitrarily detained more than a million Uyghurs and…

Global Brands Seek Clarity on Xinjiang

Chin@Strategy

Ms. Apter said that while no Eileen Fisher garments were being made in Xinjiang and that it wasn’t getting fabric or yarn from the region, the company didn’t know whether any of the cotton fiber it was using could be traced to Xinjiang. “Two years of pandemic and a deteriorating political situation made it impossible to fully vet what is happening on the ground,” Ms. Apter said. The Latest on China: Key Things to Know Card 1 of 4 Discontent among the population. The Chinese government’s censorship and surveillance, which…

Your Monday Briefing: A ‘Toothless’ Trip to Xinjiang

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering the U.N. human rights chief’s trip to China, India’s expanded protections for sex workers and Ukraine’s offensive in Kherson. U.N.’s tempered criticism of China The United Nations’ top human rights official spent six days in China, offering only limited criticism of China’s crackdown on predominantly Muslim minorities. Michelle Bachelet said that her visit “was not an investigation,” and that she had raised questions about China’s application of “counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures” when she spoke by video with Xi Jinping, China’s leader. In so doing, Bachelet couched…

China Spins U.N. Human Rights Chief’s Visit as Propaganda

Chin@Strategy

The news was given prime placement in Chinese state media: The United Nations’ human rights chief, on her long-awaited visit to the country, had spoken with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. An article plastered across the website of Xinhua, the state news agency, relayed Mr. Xi’s declaration that the Chinese people were enjoying “unprecedented” rights. Then the article quoted the U.N. official, Michelle Bachelet. “I admire China’s efforts and achievements in eradicating poverty, protecting human rights and realizing economic and social development,” she said, according to Xinhua. But within hours, Ms.…

U.N. Human Rights Chief to Make First Trip to China Since 2005

Chin@Strategy

GENEVA — Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations’ top human rights official, will next week visit China, including its troubled western region of Xinjiang, on a trip that rights activists say holds significant risks for the credibility of her office. The trip by Ms. Bachelet will be the first official visit to China by a U.N. high commissioner for human rights since 2005, after years of discussions with Beijing to arrange it. But only sketchy details have emerged about what she will do and hopes to achieve in China, which has…

Biden to Host Southeast Asian Leaders as He Tries to Return Focus to China

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — President Biden plans to host the leaders of Southeast Asian nations at the White House on Thursday and Friday, delivering a message of solidarity — and aiming to provide a bulwark against Chinese influence in the region — even as much of his administration remains focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two-day summit will cover an array of topics including trade, human rights and climate change, but it is also part of an effort by Mr. Biden’s foreign policy team to highlight one of the president’s primary…

U.S. Report Describes a Global Retreat on Human Rights

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Tuesday that governments around the world, including in Russia and China, grew more repressive last year, as the State Department released its annual report on global human rights. The department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices echoes President Biden’s warnings that authoritarianism is on the rise worldwide. Its introduction cites “continued democratic backsliding on several continents, and creeping authoritarianism that threatens both human rights and democracy — most notably, at present, with Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.” The report…

Supply Chains Tainted by Forced Labor in China, Panel Told

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — Human rights activists, labor leaders and others urged the Biden administration on Friday to put its weight behind a coming ban on products made with forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China, saying slavery and coercion taint company supply chains that run through the region and China more broadly. The law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, was signed by President Biden in December and is set to go into effect in June. It bans all goods made in Xinjiang or with ties to certain entities or…

N.B.A. Basketball Returns to Chinese TV After a Long Absence

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China Central Television, China’s state-run TV network, has begun to broadcast N.B.A. games again, signaling that the rift between the league and the authoritarian government that has persisted since 2019 appears to be coming to an end. The news was first reported by Global Times, a state-run Chinese media outlet, and confirmed by a spokesman for the N.B.A. The first game this year on state TV, according to Global Times, was Tuesday night’s matchup between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz. According to Global Times, the broadcast was…

Enes Kanter Freedom and the Consequences of Speaking Out

Chin@Strategy

Freedom, who is Muslim but knew little about the Uyghurs, threw himself into the cause. Tahir Imin, a Uyghur activist in Washington who met Freedom at a Capitol Hill rally, said that Freedom “boosted the morale of Uyghur activism.” That was just over a week after Freedom opened the N.B.A. season with the Boston Celtics, in October. Ahead of their first game, Freedom posted a video on Twitter with a caption referring to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as a “brutal dictator.” During the game, he wore shoes designed by the…