China and US locked in new infowar after Chinese social media claims American manipulation over Xinjiang

Name: UN human rights chief Bachelet caps China trip with call for counterterrorism review
Uploaded: 2022-06-07T13:00:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: UN human rights chief Bachelet caps China trip with call for counterterrorism review

WeChat account states diplomats in China said US knew there were no human rights violations in Xinjiang but sought to create dissatisfaction among Uygurs

US embassy spokesperson denies claim, says Chinese online activists exposed personal information of US officials and spouses, and encouraged attacks on them

3-MIN READ3-MIN

A spokesperson for the US embassy in China says the US position on Xinjiang remains that genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominately Muslim Uygur population and other ethnic and religious minorities are ongoing.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Jack Lau

Published: 9:00pm, 7 Jun 2022

Beijing and Washington are locked in another round of narrative wars over an unsubstantiated claim that US diplomats had admitted human rights issues in Xinjiang were made up to undermine China.

In a statement emailed on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the US embassy urged China to stop attributing false statements to American officials that could make them targets for harassment.

The spokesperson said the US position on Xinjiang remained that genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominately Muslim Uygur population and other ethnic and religious minorities were ongoing.

The statement was referring to a claim that circulated on Twitter and Chinese social media before landing among talking points for Chinese diplomats on Monday.

01:55

UN human rights chief Bachelet caps China trip with call for counterterrorism review

Buyidao, a WeChat account associated with Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, cited an anonymous source when it claimed on Sunday that Sheila Carey and Andrew Chira, US diplomats in China, had said during a 2021 reception that Washington knew there were no human rights violations in Xinjiang but used the issue to create dissatisfaction among Uygurs and damage ethnic relations.