UN chief urges China to allow ‘credible’ Xinjiang visit by rights envoy

The United Nations chief said he expects China to allow the global body’s human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to make a “credible visit” to the country, including Xinjiang.

This came as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, on the sidelines of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

“The secretary general … expressed his expectation that the contacts between the office of the high commissioner for human rights and the Chinese authorities will allow for a credible visit of the high commissioner to China, including Xinjiang,” a UN readout of Saturday’s meetings said.

Bachelet, the UN human rights commissioner, has long sought access to Xinjiang to investigate accusations of abuse against the region’s mainly Muslim ethnic Uygur minority. The issue has soured relations between China and the West, sparking accusations of “genocide” from the US and its allies, and a Washington-led diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics by some nations.

An official Chinese readout of the meetings made no mention of either Xinjiang or human rights. But it did quote Xi, who is also leader of China’s ruling Communist Party, as saying that “promoting democracy” should be a priority, in a reference to China’s claims that its own system is just as valid or even superior to the Western multiparty model.