NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Chinese leaders that he expected authorities to allow UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to make a “credible visit” to the country, including Xinjiang, the United Nations said.
Guterres met with China’s President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics, according to a UN readout of the meetings.
The UN chief “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,” it said.
Bachelet has long sought access to Xinjiang to investigate accusations of abuse against ethnic Uyghurs. The issue has soured relations between Beijing and the West, sparking accusations of genocide from Washington and a US-led diplomatic boycott by some countries of the Winter Olympics.
Bachelet’s office in Geneva said last month that conversations were underway for a possible trip to the area in northwest China in the first half of the year. Rights groups accuse China of widescale abuses against Uyghurs and other minority groups, including torture, forced labour and detention of one million people in internment camps. China calls them re-education and training facilities, denies abuses, and says it is combating religious extremism.
Guterres also discussed Afghanistan and climate change – among other issues – during his meetings with Xi and Wang. “The Secretary-General recognized the important efforts China is making to address climate change but reiterated the appeal for additional efforts to accelerate the transition to the green economy to bridge the emissions gap,” said the UN statement.
Guterres traveled to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday. The ceremony concluded with the Olympic flame cauldron lit by two young Chinese Olympians, one of them a member of China’s Uyghur minority.
The UN chief himself congratulated Xi on the organisation of the Games in their talks in Beijing, the statement from the world body said. China has so far denied Bachelet, a former president of Chile, a long-sought independent visit to Xinjiang.
The US government and lawmakers in five other Western countries have declared China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang a “genocide” — a charge flatly denied by Beijing.
China has repeatedly exhorted its critics to stop “politicising” the Olympics, which have been overshadowed by issues including rights, Covid-19 and fears of what will happen to athletes if they speak out at the Games.
At the meeting with Xi, Guterres “expressed the wish for enhanced cooperation between the United Nations and the People’s Republic of China in all the pillars of the Organization’s work -– peace and security, sustainable development, including climate change and biodiversity, and human rights,” the UN statement said.
On climate change, the UN chief “recognised the important efforts China is making to address climate change but reiterated the appeal for additional efforts to accelerate the transition to the green economy to bridge the emissions gap.”
