China Says To Allow UN Human Rights Chief To Visit Xinjiang After 2022 Winter Olympics

Kepala HAM PBB Michelle Bachelet. (Wikimedia Commons/Government of Chile)

JAKARTA - China has agreed the UN human rights chief could visit Xinjiang after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the South China Morning Post said, citing unnamed sources, but activists and a Western diplomat have expressed doubts after years of stalled talks.

Human rights groups accuse China of massive abuses against Uighur Muslims and other minority groups in the far western region of Xinjiang, including mass detention, torture and forced labour. Meanwhile, the United States accused China of genocide.

Beijing denies all accusations of harassment against Uighurs and other Muslims, describing established policies as necessary to combat religious extremism.

The newspaper said approval for the visit of Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, after the Winter Olympics ended on February 20, was granted on the condition that the visit should be 'friendly' and not framed as an investigation.

Next, Beijing has asked Bachelet's office not to publish reports on the situation in Xinjiang, the newspaper said on Thursday.

An aerial photo illustration of Xinjiang, China. (Wikimedia Commons/Anagoria)

Regarding this news, the office of Bachelet, which has been in negotiations with China for the visit since September 2018, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Separately, a Western diplomat cast doubt on the SCMP report, saying China and Bachelet had discussed the visit for years but had yet to agree on terms of reference, which, on Bachelet's side, included free and unrestricted access to people of her choice.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Bachelet had been invited to visit Xinjiang for a long time for the purpose of exchanges and cooperation, adding China was against "political manipulation" based on the visit.

With the five-week session of the UN Human Rights Council due to begin on February 28, activists and diplomats say the diplomatic window is closed for Bachelet to publish the report, which is expected to be based on her own office's research and interviews with alleged victims and witnesses in and out of Xinjiang and China.

Separately, US lawmakers have urged the UN human rights office to release its assessment before the Olympics.

Activists have been voicing frustration for months about the delay in publishing the report. In December, a spokesperson for Bachelet told a UN briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, his office was finalizing its assessment of the situation.

To note, as in 2008, the Olympics again put the spotlight on China's human rights record, which critics say has deteriorated since then, leading Washington to label Beijing's treatment of Uighur Muslims as genocide, prompting a diplomatic boycott by the United States and other countries.

"No one, especially the world's leading human rights diplomat, should be fooled by the Chinese government's efforts to divert attention from its crimes against humanity targeting Uighurs and other Turkish communities," Sophie Richardson, China director for the New York-based human rights agency, said in a statement. York, USA told Reuters in an email on Friday, as quoted January 28.