China releases report on Xinjiang in response to Bachelet’s assessment

Defending its policies towards the Uighurs, China’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva last week submitted a 131-page response document to the United Nations human rights office report.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) earlier last week has released a long-delayed and damning report into conditions for the Uighur ethnic minority in China’s northwestern Xinjiang autonomous region.

The 45-page report released by the OHCHR found that “serious violations” have been committed in Xinjiang under China’s application of measures to counter “terrorism” and “extremism”.

China has described the UN report as a “farce”.

The Chinese and UN reports on Xinjiang and the treatment of Uighurs are diametrically opposed in their views of the situation.

China said it was opposed to the release of the UN report which “ignores the human rights achievements” made by all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

China has pursued a “people-centered approach” in its policies and has embarked on a human rights development plan that aligns with “trends of the times and suits China’s national condition”.

According to the 131-page report, Beijing “upholds that living a happy life is the primary human right”.

“Anti-China forces in the US and the West merely pretend to care about human rights” but were using the Uighur issue as a means to “destabilize Xinjiang and suppress China”.

“Such despicable plots are doomed to fail,” the Chinese report states.

The document, released on August 31, titled “Fight against terrorism and extremism: Truth and Facts,” presents a detailed chronology of “the rampant” extremists’ activities in the autonomous region and of the process of “radicalization through religion.”