Tag: United Nations Human Rights Council

Why China’s Crimes in Xinjiang Cannot Go Unpunished

Chin@Strategy

Horrifying allegations poured out: children separated from parents, Uyghurs punished when relatives spoke out overseas, women forcibly sterilized or sexually abused and what the U.N. report called an “unusual and stark” decline in Uyghur birthrates. In leaked documents on the Xinjiang crackdown, President Xi Jinping called in 2014 for “absolutely no mercy.” Denying abuses, China sought to prevent global action. The U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet repeatedly postponed publishing the investigation and during a visit to Xinjiang in May recited Chinese talking points. Her office released its report just…

For Uyghurs, U.N. Report on China’s Abuses Is Long-Awaited Vindication

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — At first China said there was “no such thing” as re-education centers that held vast numbers of people in its far western Xinjiang region. Then, as more reports emerged that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and members of other largely Muslim groups were being detained, Beijing acknowledged the camps’ existence but described them as vocational training centers. When overseas Uyghurs spoke out about the authorities’ abuses in Xinjiang, China targeted their families back home, sentencing their relatives to long prison terms and using the full weight of…

U.N. Human Rights Chief to Visit China

Chin@Strategy

GENEVA — The United Nations’ top human rights official said on Tuesday that China would allow her to visit the country and examine conditions there, including in the Xinjiang region, a startling twist after years of negotiations and stonewalling by Beijing. If the visit goes ahead in May as expected, the official, Michelle Bachelet, will be the first United Nations high commissioner for human rights in 22 years to visit China, which has faced repeated criticism for its human rights policies. The visit is not without risk for the high…