China promises cooperation with United Nations on human rights

China will cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body it has had testy relations with over the years, and invite its representatives to visit the country as appropriate, the government said in a policy paper on Thursday.

President Xi Jinping’s administration has tightened control over civil society, citing a need to boost security and stability, in what activists say is the most sweeping crackdown on dissent in decades, with dozens jailed.

China frequently faces censure at the U.N. rights body, and has refused to allow in some U.N.-appointed envoys. Others have complained that when they are allowed to visit the government interferes with their work and blocks access to interviewees.

China’s latest National Human Rights Action Plan, which runs to 2020, promises that China “will cooperate with the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council”.

This includes “answering letters from it, inviting, as appropriate, representatives of the body to visit China, and continuing to recommend Chinese experts for posts in the Special Procedures”, said the paper, released by the official Xinhua news agency.

“China will conduct exchanges and cooperation with the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and hold dialogues on human rights with relevant countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” it added.