It was a mistake for a United Nations human rights official to agree to a visit to China, the US Department of State said on Tuesday, amid concerns that government restrictions on its access could undermine Beijing’s human rights record.During her six-day visit, which began on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will visit the Chinese province west of Xinjiang, where her office said last year it believes most Muslim Uighurs have been illegally detained, mistreated and forced to work.
The United States calls its treatment a “genocide,” but Beijing denies any wrongdoing.”We do not expect the PRC (People’s Republic of China) to provide the necessary access to a comprehensive, unofficial study of the human rights area of Xinjiang,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news conference.
“We think it was a mistake to accept a visit under the circumstances,” Price said, adding that Bachelet could not get the full picture “of atrocities, crimes against humanity, and genocide” in the region.Asked if Chinese leader Xi Jinping was to blame for the atrocities, Price said it would be “difficult for us to imagine” that the highest levels of Chinese government were unaware.
He added that Tuesday’s media reports of thousands of leaked photos and documents from community safety centers in two Xinjiang districts added to the “existing evidence body” of harassment there.Bachelet requested unrestricted access to Xinjiang, but China’s Foreign Ministry said his visit would be “closed loop,” referring to a way to separate people within the “bubble” to prevent the COVID-19 virus from spreading.China initially denied the existence of any detention camps, but later admitted that it had established “training centers” needed to curb what it called terrorism, secession and religious discrimination in Xinjiang.
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