US ‘deeply concerned’ about UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet’s China visit
- The US does not expect Beijing to grant the high commissioner sufficient access to conduct a ‘complete, unmanipulated assessment’ in Xinjiang, a spokesman said
- He also criticised Bachelet for not releasing a report on the region, where the US has accused China of genocide against Uygurs and other minority groups
The US State Department on Friday expressed concern about an upcoming visit by the United Nations rights chief to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, warning that restrictions by Beijing could make a thorough investigation into alleged rights abuses there impossible.
“We’re deeply concerned about the upcoming visit,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said of the planned trip by Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights.
“We have no expectation that the [People’s Republic of China] will grant the necessary access required to conduct a complete, unmanipulated assessment of the human rights environment in Xinjiang,” Price said. “The high commissioner, we believe, must act, and be allowed to act, independently. And the high commissioner must report objectively and factually on the human rights situation.”
Bachelet is scheduled to travel to China next week, the first official visit to the country by a UN rights chief since 2005.
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China claims improved living standards and ethnic equality in Xinjiang while ignoring allegations
The landmark visit will include stops in the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar in Xinjiang, where rights groups, witnesses and some governments have accused the Chinese government of carrying out a far-reaching crackdown on Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups.
