The Chinese Ambassador to Geneva warned on Friday that cooperation between Beijing and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is “at risk” following the release of a report on the Xinjiang region.
“We cannot continue to cooperate as if nothing happened, nothing has been reported,” Xu Chen said at a press conference held by the UN accredited association of journalists in Geneva (Acanu).
China described the report as a “political tool” written by “servants” from Western countries.
The High Commissioner at the time, Michelle Bachelet, decided to publish the minutes of the report on 31 August, before the end of her term at the institution.
In the text, the UN cites possible “crimes against humanity” and “credible evidence” of torture and sexual violence against the Muslim-majority Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang region (northwest).
Chen warned that during Bachelet’s visit to China in May, Beijing had expressed its willingness to cooperate with the High Commission, the first of its kind in nearly two decades.
“We offer our willingness to cooperate. However, publishing the review(…) risks everything,” said Chen.
“We have agreed on a number of bilateral cooperation mechanisms”, but the High Commissioner “closed the door to cooperation” by publishing the report.
But the ambassador insisted that China remains “an ardent supporter of the United Nations”.
Regarding Bachelet’s successor, Austrian Volker Turk, Chen said, “We are ready to establish a working relationship.”
source: Noticias
