China says UN Rights chief may visit Xinjiang but 'won't be allowed to probe' Uyghur issue

Amid widespread allegations of human rights abuse in the Uyghur majority Xinjiang region, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday asserted that Beijing will allow the visit of United Nations Human Rights Commission to the province but "won't allow" investigation.

Addressing the 58th Munich Security Conference (MSC) through a video link, Yi called on the Western powers to reject "prejudices" against the ruling Chinese President Xi Jinping-led Communist Party, ANI reported, citing a Pakistan-based news outlet.

"China rejects all kinds of biases, prejudices, and uncalled-for accusations," Wang Yi said at the Munich Security Conference held in Germany when asked if UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet would have "unrestricted" access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The Chinese FM's assertions come as Beijing is facing severe flak from the international community against intense human rights abuse against Uyghur minorities, Tibetans, ethnic Turkic communities and Hong Kong. The US has also repeatedly alleged that China has been committing genocide against ethnic Uyghurs.

In addition, over 249 rights groups across the world have also called for actions against China for its arbitrary crackdowns, detention, and forced labour of Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.

Human rights abuse in China

In 2014, China launched a "Strike Hard Campaign" against Uyghurs in XUAR, under which it began and continues to commit crimes against the Turkic Muslim population in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. At least 300-400 have been arbitrarily detained in facilities, including "political education" camps, pretrial detention and prisons.

"Detainees and prisoners are subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, cultural and political indoctrination, and forced labor. The oppression continues outside the detention facilities: the Chinese authorities impose on Turkic Muslims a pervasive system of mass surveillance, controls on movement, arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance, cultural and religious erasure, and family separation," HRW said in its report.

In 2017, Xinjiang alone accounted for nearly 21% of the arrests in China, when the region only holds 1.5% of the total Chinese population. Furthermore, China also launched a 'sinicisation' campaign under which Beijing authorities outrightly demolished at least two-thirds of mosques in the country.

Overall, at least 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have allegedly been placed in detention centers across the western Chinese province of Xinjian, as per reports by the US State Department. There have also been reports of a sprawling network of forced labour, attempted indoctrination, physical abuse, and even sterilisation of the members of the community as a part of China's sinicisation bid.

The US and several western parliaments have dubbed Chinese actions in XUAR as "genocide". The international community, including European Union and the UK, have imposed targetted sanctions on a Chinese government official, although in vain. Nevertheless, China has continued to deny claims of such abuses, further refusing to allow investigation into the matter.

Image: AP (representative)