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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet says China is restricting civil and political freedoms. Photo: Reuters

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet accuses China of restricting civil rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong

  • Activists and UN experts have said that at least one million Muslim Uygurs are detained in camps in the western region of Xinjiang
  • China denies abuses and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism
Xinjiang
United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Friday that China was restricting basic civil and political freedoms – including in Hong Kong – in the name of national security and coronavirus measures, adding to a wave of criticism of the country’s rights record.
“In China, strong progress has been made over the last year in reducing the prevalence of Covid-19 and its severe impact on the enjoyment of a broad range of human rights,” Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“At the same time, fundamental rights and civic freedoms continue to be curtailed in the name of national security and the Covid-19 response. Activists, lawyers and human rights defenders – as well as some foreign nationals – face arbitrary criminal charges, detention or unfair trials.”

She said hundreds of people in Hong Kong were being investigated for taking part in protests, some under the new national security law imposed by Beijing on the former British colony.

China would welcome UN Human Rights Council visit ‘because there is no genocide in Xinjiang’

Hong Kong Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah hit back, saying that since the law was adopted, civil unrest had subsided.

Cheng also said the security law protected human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly, alongside legal principles such as presumption of innocence.

“When adjudicating cases, the judges in Hong Kong remain independent and impartial in discharging their judicial duties, free from any interference,” Cheng said, adding the courts had been entrusted by the central government to exercise jurisdiction over cases concerning national security offences.

Executive Council member Ronny Tong Ka-wah said he was surprised that people would link the fight against the pandemic with civil rights.

“[By that] token, every country in the world is curtailing freedoms. People also seem to forget that under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights all rights are subject to limitations on the grounds of national security and public health,” Tong said.

On the question of arrests, he said that if authorities did not investigate, “how can you tell if someone had committed a crime or not?”

Paul Harris, chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, said the UN human rights commissioner was chosen by the United Nations for her outstanding expertise in human rights.

“A critical report by her on Hong Kong is therefore something that should be taken very seriously and carefully considered,” Harris said.

There have been more than 10,000 protest-related arrests since last year and over 2,400 prosecutions.

As Australia mulls ban on Xinjiang-made goods, critics ask why China is being singled out for forced labour

In her address, Bachelet also said there was a need for a thorough and independent assessment of conditions in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, given reports about arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, sexual violence and forced labour there.

She said she hoped to reach an agreement with Chinese officials about a visit to the country.

Louise Arbour was the last UN high commissioner for human rights to visit China, in September 2005.

Activists and UN experts have said that at least 1 million Muslim Uygurs have been detained in camps Xinjiang. China denies abuses and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.

China struck back last week at growing criticism by Western powers of its treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet and of citizens in Hong Kong.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that “there has never been so-called genocide, forced labour, or religious oppression in Xinjiang”.

But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said torture, forced labour and sterilisations were taking place on an “industrial scale” in Xinjiang while French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said “an institutionalised system of surveillance and repression on a large scale” was in place in the region.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has endorsed the Trump administration’s finding that China had committed genocide in Xinjiang and said the United States must be prepared to impose costs on China.

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