At the UN, the UK and US gave China a rare and scathing human rights assessment.
China’s human rights record criticised at UN as it faces rare scrutiny of policies (Photo: Google)
Global Scrutiny and Divergent Perspectives
At the UN Human Rights Council’s global periodic review, governments urged China to end Uyghur and Tibetan persecution, ensure religious freedom, and end assimilation in Tibet and Xinjiang. The UK demanded Hong Kong’s national security statute be repealed and Jimmy Lai’s charges dropped. China’s UN envoy rejected concerns as “misunderstanding or misinformation.”
International concern over China’s human rights violations since 2018 was emphasized in the study. Global attention has focused on Hong Kong’s national security statute and Xinjiang’s human rights atrocities. Chen Xu, China’s UN ambassador, accused certain nations of making baseless charges based on ideology and gossip.
Several nations praised China’s poverty reduction and human rights development. Ethiopia welcomed China’s criminal justice reforms, while Iran hailed social, cultural, and economic rights initiatives. Bhutan, improving relations with China, praised China’s poverty alleviation.
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Concerns Over Chinese Influence and Global Response
Human rights groups are worried that Chinese official rhetoric in nations’ proposals may influence the assessment process. A World Uyghur Conference spokesman chastised Muslim-majority nations for not condemning Uyghur, Kazakh, and other minority oppression in Xinjiang.
The study is the first since the UN’s August 2022 report on Uyghur human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The world’s responses to China’s human rights violations show the complexity of the issue.
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