Chinese head of state and party leader Xi Jinping defended the human rights situation in his country in a video conference with UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet. The government has been accused by human rights groups of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education camps” in the far west of the country. China dismisses the accusations as the “lie of the century”.
Human rights issues should not be politicized, instrumentalized or treated with double standards, Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV: “The development of human rights in China suits national circumstances.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is also traveling to Xinjiang this week to monitor the situation on the ground. However, human rights groups and the US government are skeptical that Bachelet will be given the necessary free and unsupervised access to camps, detention centers and their inmates so that she can make an independent and unbiased assessment.
The US government is shocked by the recent revelations about human rights violations in Xinjiang. An international media consortium had previously published further evidence of the mass internment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Photos, speeches and instructions from the authorities there proved, among other things, torture and the existence of a shooting order.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
