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BEIJING – The Chinese government presented Tuesday in Geneva, at a United Nations panel on human rights in Geneva, a provocative defense defending many Muslims, which turned into a confrontation with the United States. United and other critics of Chinese politics.
While protesters against China were marching on the outside, representatives from about a dozen countries, most of them Western, criticized the Chinese delegation over the internment camp network of China. their country in the Xinjiang region as part of a comprehensive review of China's record by the UN. Human Rights Council.
In alphabetical order, Australia set the tone, calling on China to "end the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang".
Mark Cassayre of the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva was one of the latest critics, calling on China to close detention centers and release all detainees.
A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals what is happening in the growing network of internment camps in China, where hundreds of thousands of Uyghur population have reportedly been arrested. Screen / video capture: Clément Bürge
China has boldly defended its internment of what the United Kingdom has declared to have made up to one million people, mainly Uyghurs, claiming that it is effective in the fight against terrorism and protects the majority in China.
The Yucheng, the head of the Chinese delegation, reiterated a recent explanation of the government that the camps are vocational schools and said that it was an innovative solution for the protection of the population and the prevention of the spread of extremism.
"This protects the human rights of the vast majority, while saving those people," said Le. "This is another important contribution of China to the global field of the fight against terrorism."
The exchange was part of a regular cycle of human rights reviews that each country had to undergo once every few years. This is the first appearance in China since the Chinese authorities began to significantly expand the mass surveillance and political indoctrination of Muslims in Xinjiang, a program to retain the Communist Party and to fight against a sometimes violent separatist movement .
Three months ago, during an appearance before another US committee, Chinese authorities denied reports of mass detentions and political indoctrination in Xinjiang, claiming that juvenile criminals had been sent to vocational training centers.
Since then, the government has acknowledged that the facilities had an ideological purpose and earned them an end to violent terrorist incidents that, according to Beijing, would be linked to foreign Islamist militants.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yucheng will travel to Geneva on Tuesday for the United Nations Human Rights Review Session in Geneva.
Photo:
SALVATORE DI NOLFI / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK / EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
During his appearance before the panel, the mayor of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, described the inmates as students and said he was delighted to learn to be vaccinated against the Religious extremism.
"They never realized how rich and colorful life could be," said Mayor Yasim Sadiq, himself Uighur.
The establishments visited by the Wall Street Journal during its recent visits to Xinjiang and others described by the former detainees are of the prison type, surrounded by high walls, watchtowers and razors. Some former detainees reported being subjected to mental and physical torture during their stay in the interior.
Chinese officials have denied any torture, saying that the rights of those sent to the premises are respected.
Human rights groups said Beijing was trying to erase Muslim cultural identities as part of a program of forced assimilation and that this effort was a test for the international regime of human rights.
"The camps are at the heart of the entire human rights system and its content during its construction after the Second World War," said Sharon Hom, executive director of China's non-profit Human Rights Group. , based in New York. Ms. Hom was an observer inside the Palais des Nations, where Tuesday's round table was held.
Dolkun Isa, president of the Uyghur World Congress, which supports the peaceful establishment of an independent state in Xinjiang, attends a demonstration against China on Tuesday in Geneva.
Photo:
DENIS BALIBOUSE / REUTERS
Representatives from several countries have asked China to grant the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights access to the Xinjiang camps in order to verify the government's claims about their goal.
Revisions to the United Nations Human Rights Council are limited. Participating countries have less than one minute to make their declarations. The council gives governments being reviewed the power to decide which group recommendations they want to accept and there is no method to punish those who do not improve. This makes China's concessions unlikely, said commission experts.
"I do not think the behavior of the Chinese will change," said Nury Turkel, chairman of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, which was not in Geneva. He said that the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping "wants to take control of the so-called Uighur problem once and for all".
Turkey was among more than 50 Muslim countries present at the review and the only one to be on the verge of criticizing China on Tuesday over the Xinjiang problem, calling on the country to improve conditions for ethnic groups trying to "preserve their identity distinct, religion and language. "
Kazakhstan, bordering Xinjiang, began discussing detentions, but was interrupted for overtime.
Although the US delegation's convictions were among the most severe, it commented as an observer state, after having withdrawn from the council in June, after criticizing the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children. from their parents at the border.
The Chinese representative criticized the United States and other critics, saying that Beijing "will not accept politically motivated accusations from a few biased countries".
In a national report submitted to the UN before the review, Beijing said that there was no universal path for the development of human rights in the world . Instead, the country was determined to pursue "human rights with Chinese characteristics."
Write to Josh Chin at [email protected]
