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A senior Chinese diplomat said China could not cooperate with the U.N. human rights office after it released a report criticizing Beijing’s policies against Uighurs and other ethnic groups in western Xinjiang.
However, Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to UN agencies in Geneva, distinguishes between not cooperating with the Human Rights Office and cooperating with the whole world body.
Mr Chen said the report released last week – which said some human rights abuses under China’s counter-terrorism policy could amount to crimes against humanity – made “groundless accusations” of China’s policies and practices.
“On the one hand, we cannot cooperate with the office while it publishes such an assessment,” Mr Chen told ACANU, the United Nations press association in Geneva.
He said the Chinese side considered the report “a threat” and could not “turn a blind eye”.
On August 31, at the end of her last day in office, the office of then-United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet released a report accusing China of gross human rights violations against Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim groups. .
It called on the international community to pay “urgent attention” to the situation in Xinjiang.
Human rights groups have accused China of imprisoning a million or more ethnic minority people in internment camps, where many say they are tortured, sexually assaulted and forced to renounce their language and religion.
China has repeatedly said the “assessment” was fabricated by Western countries.
Mr Chen said China – one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – would continue to work with the UN as a whole, calling the world body the “core” of international relations.
“We will continue to cooperate. But as I said, the office cannot make an assessment of this nature on behalf of the United Nations,” he said.
Mr Chen also said China would “actively participate” in the four-week session of the UN-backed Human Rights Council, which began on Monday.
The committee works closely with the UN Human Rights Office, which is part of the office of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
On Thursday, the UN General Assembly chose Austria’s Volker Turk as Ms Bachelet’s successor.
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