“OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China”

From the conclusion to the Report:

The information currently available to OHCHR on implementation of the Government’s stated drive against terrorism and “extremism” in XUAR in the period 2017-2019 and potentially thereafter, also raises concerns from the perspective of international criminal law. The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute  international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.

See also other commentary on Econbrowser [1], [2], [3].

35 thoughts on ““OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China”

  1. ltr

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-09-01/China-blasts-UN-report-on-human-rights-concerns-over-Xinjiang-1cYo48RPBrG/index.html

    September 1, 2022

    China on OHCHR Xinjiang report: Not backed by mainstream of int’l community

    China on Thursday rejected a report by the UN human rights office over Xinjiang, reiterating that its issuance has been opposed by nearly a hundred countries, and is not the mainstream view of the international community.

    The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), disregarding China’s solemn representation, released the so-called “assessment” on Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Wednesday.

    In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing that the report was purely plotted by the United States and some other anti-China forces in the West.

    “It’s totally illegal and invalid,” said Wang. “The report is a hodgepodge of misinformation, a political tool used by the West to push its strategy of ‘using Xinjiang to contain China.'”

    More than 60 countries sent a joint letter to the OHCHR to make it clear that they opposed the release of this false report, Wang said, adding that nearly 100 non-governmental organizations have done the same.

    Nearly 100 countries, including Muslim countries, have continuously spoken up at the Human Rights Council and the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly to support China’s legitimate position on Xinjiang and oppose interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of Xinjiang-related issues, he said.

    “This is the mainstream of the international community,” Wang said, adding that the West’s unpopular political attempts on Xinjiang were doomed to fail.

    ‘The lie of the century’ exposed

    Wang said the OHCHR, by compiling the report based on political attempts of some anti-China forces outside China, seriously violates its own responsibilities, and gravely breaks the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity and non-politicization.

    “It has been proved again that the OHCHR has completely reduced itself into a hitman and accomplice of the U.S. and the West at large to punish the vast developing countries,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

    The report, though as illegal and incredible as it is, has stopped short of pushing such fallacies as genocide, forced labor, religious repression and forced sterilization, Wang continued.

    “So it can be seen that ‘the lie of the century’ made by the U.S. and the West has been exposed.”

    Realities in Xinjiang

    Regarding the human rights in Xinjiang, Wang said no one has a better say than the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

    He pointed out that Xinjiang’s residents of different ethnic groups and of different religious beliefs, occupations, those who have graduated from vocational education and training centers and others, have all voluntarily written to the High Commissioner to tell the realities of Xinjiang from their own experiences.

    In recent years, Xinjiang has achieved economic development, social harmony and stability, continuous improvement in people’s livelihood, and religious harmony, the spokesperson noted.

    International friends who have been to Xinjiang said that what they saw with their own eyes was completely different from what the Western media reported and what the anti-China forces portrayed, Wang said….

    1. baffling

      what a surprise, ltr retorts with more propaganda! as if a news release from the ccp should be taken seriously. ltr, quit being so rude posting such propaganda.

      1. AS

        baffling,
        Remember, itr is most likely employed by a CCP troll propaganda farm and has been tasked with fellow team trolls to infiltrate blogs to undermine the US whenever possible.

  2. Barkley Rosser

    Oh, but there are a lot of tourists in Xinjiang, and, you know what? The PRC has had only 4 deaths per million from Covid-19, something none of you had any idea of before I just told you. So there!

  3. baffling

    I would argue the behavior by the ccp towards the Uyghur populations in china is borderline genocide. it is certainly an exercise in ethnic cleansing. the Chinese communist party would be happy to make that ethic group disappear.

    now let the whining from ltr commence about how racist this post is, while ltr is simply being courageous and courteous and righteous while spreading ccp propaganda.

  4. ltr

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-08-26/Tibet-Xinjiang-see-better-medical-services-with-aid-from-other-areas-1cOsOHVEXni/index.html

    August 26, 2022

    China’s Tibet, Xinjiang see improved medical services with aid from other areas

    China has been dispatching medical professionals from the top hospitals across the country to medical institutions in Tibet and Xinjiang every year over the past decade, which has significantly improved the medical services in the two regions, the National Health Commission (NHC) said at a press conference on Friday.

    The country has sent more than 2,500 high-level medical talents to hospitals in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, helped train over 1,000 medical teams, 5,800 medical staff and cultivated over 10,000 health workers at different levels in the two regions, said Li Dachuan, deputy director of the Bureau of Medical Administration of the NHC.

    Medical assistance has been provided to eight major hospitals in Tibet and eight in Xinjiang respectively, Li said, adding that another 13 county-level public hospitals in Tibet were included in the program last year.

    Thanks to the program, the medical services in the two regions have been improved continuously, and local people have enjoyed higher levels of health care services, said Hu Qiangqiang, spokesperson for the NHC.

    In 2020, the average life expectancy of the residents in Tibet reached 72.19 years, Li said, compared with 68.17 years in 2013. In the same year, the average life expectancy in Xinjiang reached 74.42, according to local health authorities.

    In the past three years, the maternal mortality ratio in Tibet has declined by 19.5 percent, and the infant mortality rate has dropped by 35.3 percent, Li said.

    By the end of 2021, the cure rate of critically-ill patients in the hospitals that have received the assistance in Tibet reached 89 percent, he noted.

    In Xinjiang, a batch of key disciplines have been established or upgraded in the eight hospitals that have received the medical assistance, which can treat 332 critical illnesses and 1914 common diseases, according to Li.

  5. baffling

    “china’s tibet”
    ltr, tibet was illegally annex through military takeover. tibet is not china, and should be freed.

    1. Moses Herzog

      @ Bruce Hall
      That’s right, I had almost forgot, you’re more into the moderate fascism. Don’t worry, donald trump is saving and cuddling with his love letters from Kim Jong Un. He’s going to get past the evil liberal moderation of his fascism and move up with the big boys of Fascism that give trump the super glue in his undies during late night fantasies.
      https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-national-archives-kim-jong-un-mar-a-lago-1295991/

      1. Bruce Hall

        Moses, what is fascism? Seriously.

        A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

        It’s usually described as “far right” because that plays into the “nationalistic” narrative as opposed to the “globalist” narrative. But Old Uncle Joe displayed a lot of those fascist tendencies the other night with his tantrum speech and blood red backdrop. 80 million Americans are now the enemy of “democracy” per Biden’s definition (anyone opposed to his agenda). Of course he was forced to backtrack on that because such statements are political suicide and his cronies know that given the Biden-Hitler memes quickly spreading. If anyone has created a government in America marked by centralization of authority and a capitalist economy subject to stringent government controls, it is Joe Biden et al. Lockdowns are for you own good; inflation is necessary to save the planet; gasoline too expensive, then buy an EV you can’t afford. Yeah, good old centralization of authority and crony capitalism.

        Can’t wait to see how John Podesta doles out goodies to his buddies. What a sick joke.

        1. pgl

          “But Old Uncle Joe displayed a lot of those fascist tendencies the other night with his tantrum speech and blood red backdrop. 80 million Americans are now the enemy of “democracy” per Biden’s definition (anyone opposed to his agenda).”

          Did Kelly Anne ask you to write this dishonest garbage? What did she do to get you to go so pathetic? Promise you sex since George won’t do her. Brucie – she is one ugly woman and she peddles in Alternative Facts. But I guess that is the best you can do.

        2. pgl

          BTW your definition of fascism fits Trump to a tee – especially this:

          stringent governmental controls

          Oh wait you thought the Trump trade wars was free trade. You are indeed THAT STUPID.

          1. Barkley Rosser

            Another thing T did that other presidents have not, or at least not in the extreme and personalistic way T did, is to go after specific corporations whose CEOs said or did something he did not like, criticizing him. Others have done that sometimes, but he is way ahead of all others on it.

        3. pgl

          BTW whenever Brucie boy starts a rant with “Old Uncle Joe”, it is guaranteed to be something so disgustingly dishonest that Faux News would refuse to run it. This is a prime example. Hey Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are two of the most dishonest scums on TV but neither one would lie so blatantly as Bruce Hall.

          Hey Brucie – why not start a podcast? RUDY has but I’m sure you can outdo that old drunk.

        4. pgl

          After checking all that NCAA football scores, I decided to go back to the dumbest trolling ever:

          “the Biden-Hitler memes quickly spreading. If anyone has created a government in America marked by centralization of authority and a capitalist economy subject to stringent government controls, it is Joe Biden et al. Lockdowns are for you own good; inflation is necessary to save the planet; gasoline too expensive, then buy an EV you can’t afford. Yeah, good old centralization of authority and crony capitalism.”

          Biden is the anti-thesis of Hitler but Trump wanted to be our Hitler. I bet Brucie looks good in his brown shift. Lockdowns were part of the 2020 addressing of a virus that Bruce Hall repeatedly lied about as if he wanted more people to die. And biden was not President in 2020. No we have been opening up under Biden thanks to more intelligent responses.

          Crony capitalism was standard faire under Trump but that cease pool has thankfully been thrown out of power.

          But notice Brucie thinks drill baby drill is the way to lower gasoline prices. We have been over that many times and this lying troll just makes such claims. I bet Brucie even thinks the earth is flat.

    2. pgl

      I bet Trump did revere Mao but no one else does. Of course you cannot write a coherent comment without beginning it with such an incredibly stupid and disgusting opening.

    1. Macroduck

      Orwell on ltr:

      “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.”

  6. joseph

    It’s not like the U.S. doesn’t have its own sordid history with Muslims. Some 600,000 dead in Iraq and 3 million to 5 million displaced refugees. That’s a lot of human misery.

  7. 2slugbaits

    Bruce Hall the CCP is a dangerous and ruthless adversary. True fascism.

    Wrong. The CCP is a true totalitarian state, as were Mao’s China, Stalin’s USSR and Hitler’s Nazism. By contrast, fascism is the authoritarian and conservative ideology of leaders like Mussolini, Franco and Peron….and to some extent Trumpian MAGA extremists. You might want to acquaint yourself with this very famous 20th century political thinker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

    1. Bruce Hall

      2slug,

      The CCP is fascism dressed as “communism”. State and private run capitalist corporations working hand in glove. “Conservatism” is a relative term. In China, the CCP are the “conservatives”. Under Mao, totalitarianism was tried and failed, so the CCP turned to fascism. The practical results are pretty much the same.

        1. Bruce Hall

          Menzie, be my guest. A fascist by any other name…. (Yeah, I know the quote is about roses, but it fits).

          You can also refer to my reply to 2slugbaits below.

          1. pgl

            Your reply was your usual stupid babbling. OK – you have no clue who Edmund Burke was. Do we need to remind you who Hannah Arendt was? Oh wait – Kelly Anne is not allowing her pet poodle to understand even the basics.

    2. Bruce Hall

      2slug,

      In addition to my other reply, you might find this interesting out of the UK.
      https://www.varsity.co.uk/opinion/21586

      This echoed a 2014 observation:
      https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/is-china-fascist-state/

      This echoed a 2012 New York Times article:
      http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/asia/01iht-letter01.html?_r=0
      Is today’s China fascist?

      To cite a few characteristics, starting with the one-party state: Since the economic reforms that followed the death of Mao Zedong, it has grown immensely wealthy through its state-owned companies, some of which rank among the world’s richest. What was once a poor, authoritarian state has become a rich, authoritarian state.

      The rights to speak and associate freely remain tightly hobbled despite some relaxation, and some top officials openly scorn democracy. The courts obey the party’s directives.

      Official slogans increasingly exhort nationalism and “national rejuvenation,” a concept rooted in a mystical sense of nationhood popular with fascist thinkers in the last century.

      “The signs have long been there,” said Wang Lixiong, a prominent writer and scholar. “I feel there is a very clear trend toward fascism, and the source of fascism comes from the ever-growing power of the power holders.” China is “a police state,” he said, where power rules for power’s sake.

      The passing of Mao did not lead to power-sharing, it just stripped China of its Communist ideology, and no convincing value system has filled the gap, he said.

      “Power has become an interest group,” Mr. Wang said.

      “Today the interest groups have no ideology,” he said. “Their goal is to protect their own profit and power. They can only rely on power to rule, because they have no goal that convinces the people. So the state relies on power to suppress society and attain its objectives. I think there’s no other route the power holders can go.”

      You can argue the minor technicalities of the definition but the reality is obvious to those who are watching.

      1. pgl

        Gee – no wonder your boy liked Kimmie and Xi. Modern day Maoists. And this is the government Bruce Hall went out at night with his torches dressed in KKK garments to foster.

      2. 2slugbaits

        Bruce Hall Look at the dates on your last two links. Quite old. Back then China was arguably a peculiar kind of fascist state, but China has since morphed into a totalitarian state. As to your first link, I wouldn’t put too much credence in something that a second-year undergrad majoring in the natural sciences has to say regarding political theory. Sam Hudson said: In the recent Union debate on the global resurgence of fascism, I was struck by the total omission of China from the debate by all six speakers. Well, maybe that’s because those six other speakers understand the difference between fascism and totalitarianism. Again, if you want to understand the difference, consult Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” It’s a classic in political theory and still in print 70 odd years. Confusing fascism and totalitarianism is a common mistake, which is why she felt compelled to write the book,
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism:

        Arendt concludes that while Italian Fascism was a nationalist authoritarian movement, Nazism and Stalinism were totalitarian movements that sought to eliminate all restraints upon the power of the movement. She attributes the difference, in part, to a minimum necessary population:

        “[T]otalitarian movements depend on the sheer force of numbers to such an extent that totalitarian regimes seem impossible, even under otherwise favorable circumstances, in countries with relatively small populations…. [E]ven Mussolini, who was so fond of the term “totalitarian state,” did not attempt to establish a full-fledged totalitarian regime and contented himself with dictatorship and one-party rule.”

        A few of the factors that have moved China into the totalitarian spectrum are (1) greater emphasis on imperialism and a kind of Anschluss approach to foreign policy; (2) breaking down of intermediary institutions that insulate the citizen from the state; (3) a kind of onion-like structure to political power; (4) a shift from fear to terror in which the goal is to not merely make people afraid, but to make people feel frozen with terror; and (5) a cult of personality around the leader. While today’s China is a totalitarian society, Putin’s Russia is more of an old-fashioned authoritarian fascistic kind of state, although it could eventually morph into a totalitarian state.

        1. pgl

          Hannah Arendt v. Bruce’s college sophomore studying natural sciences. I told you Brucie will never get this as he is not even trying.

          1. Bruce Hall

            Melissa Chan of the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/31/china-authoritarian-fascism-totalitarian-uyghurs-surveillance/

            In 2009, when I began to more frequently describe China as “authoritarian” as a broadcast correspondent for Al Jazeera English, some editors pushed back, believing it was too much editorializing. We have since become more comfortable with regularly using the designation, in media coverage and beyond. But as journalists and athletes head to Beijing for the Winter Olympics, it may be time to reassess and consider calling the Chinese state what it is fast becoming: a fascist one.

            Consider the hallmarks of fascism: a surveillance state with a strongman invoking racism, nationalism and traditional family values at home, while building up a military for expansion abroad.

            Companies may chase profit margins like other capitalist enterprises, but party officials step in when they see an overriding state interest. Those who fail to fall in line are felled — the most spectacular example being billionaire tech magnate Jack Ma, who disappeared for months after criticizing the country’s financial regulators. Together with Beijing’s anti-union, anti-labor stance, the Chinese economy today recalls Mussolini’s corporatist fascism.

            Taken together, “authoritarian” …hardly feels enough, nor does it feel accurate. That is a disservice to the public. Journalists, politicians and others should consider calling elements of the Chinese state fascistic, if they are not entirely comfortable describing the state writ large as fascist.

            We may be facing an absence of existing terminology to properly describe contemporary China. But that behooves us to rethink our vocabulary and not dismiss the f-word out of hand.

            Sorry, 2slug, I know that going all the way back to January, 2022 is just not current or fashionable enough for you. You need to cite a 70-year old perspective.

            “Oh, sure, take the word or a disgruntled Chinese woman, eh?” — pgl (figured I’d save you the effort)
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Chan

        2. Bruce Hall

          2slug,

          The oldest is 2012. Yeah, centuries ago when Barack Obama was POTUS.

          2014?

          2021?

          Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the CCP in … 2012.

          I understand the reluctance to call what is commonly considered a liberal? (no) progressive? (no) socialist? (no) communist! government a fascist government… but in the case of China under Xi it checks all the boxes. It just causes heads to explode on the left. Omission doesn’t mean exclusion; it means lack of recognition.

    3. pgl

      As incredibly dumb Bruce may be at basic economics, he is worse at political philosophy and history. Don’t waste your time trying to educate this boy. He refuses to learn anything past 2 plus 2.

  8. joseph

    Speaking of fascists, Biden says that one-half of Republicans are semi-fascists. By my reckoning, that means that the Republican Party is one-quarter fascist.

    1. pgl

      Hillary got in trouble by saying half of Trump’s supporters …. You get the idea. Actually I think she was underestimating the number of nut cases supporting Trump. Could 30% of Republicans and 80% of Trump’s supports full blown fascists?

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