THE recent landmark visit of Michelle Bachelet, UN Human Rights Chief, to Xinjiang region of China has further exposed Western propaganda and malice towards China amid calls for her resignation from the HR Council for committing the crime of visiting the region to have first-hand knowledge of what is actually happening there.
By hosting the visit for six long days, China reiterated its position that it has nothing to hide in Xinjing but the US Secretary of State tried to make the fruitful visit controversial by alleging that ‘the conditions imposed on the visit did not enable a complete and independent assessment of the human rights environment in [China], including in Xinjiang, where genocide and crimes against humanity are ongoing’.
Bachelet is the first UN Human Rights Chief to visit China since 2005 and her trip was the result of years of negotiation.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu told the media that the two sides “conducted extensive and in-depth exchanges in the spirit of mutual respect and frankness”, and Bachelet’s visit was an opportunity to “experience a real Xinjiang”.
However, some Western governments and media that have been consistently unleashing false propaganda about human rights situation in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Xinjiang were widely disappointed that she did not criticize China’s human rights violations in Xinjiang more forcefully or manage to ferret out new details about the situation on the ground.
China surely scored a diplomatic victory by arranging the comprehensive visit, conducting in-depth negotiations with the visitor and taking her to training centres (which are dubbed by some circles in the West as detention centres).
The praise Bachelet showered on China has baffled anti-China elements, who were expecting to use the visit as yet another tool to further their malicious propaganda.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out that certain Western countries, out of ulterior motives, went to great lengths to disrupt and undercut the High Commissioner’s visit but their plot didn’t succeed.
The agreement reached during the visit to start an annual senior strategic meeting and set up working groups to discuss human rights and minority rights issues is another manifestation of the transparent attitude and policies of the Chinese Government on the issue.
The international community must appreciate that unlike Occupied Kashmir, where the Indian Government has imposed a total media blackout, China has welcomed numerous foreign personalities and delegations from different institutions to visit Xinjiang where huge developmental activities are underway to improve socio-economic conditions of the population.
