Xi in video call with UN rights chief on Xinjiang visit

BEIJING • Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke yesterday in a video call with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who is on a visit that has drawn criticism from rights groups and which the United States has called a mistake.

While Ms Bachelet's six-day trip will include a visit to the far western region of Xinjiang, where her office said last year it believes mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs have been unlawfully detained, mistreated and forced to work, there was no mention of it in a state media account of their video meeting.

Mr Xi told Ms Bachelet that China's development of human rights "suits its own national conditions" and that among the various types of human rights, the rights to subsistence and development were primary for developing countries.

"Deviating from reality and copying wholesale the institutional model of other countries will not only fit badly with the local conditions, but also bring disastrous consequences," Xinhua state news agency quoted Mr Xi as saying. "In the end, it is the broad masses of the people who will suffer," he said.

Ms Bachelet said her meeting with Mr Xi had been a valuable opportunity to speak directly about human rights issues. "For development, peace and security to be sustainable: human rights, justice, inclusion of all, without exception, must be at the core," she said in a tweet yesterday.

Critics say they do not believe Ms Bachelet would be granted necessary access to make a full assessment of the rights situation in Xinjiang. She has called for unfettered access in Xinjiang, but China's Foreign Ministry has said her visit would be conducted in a "closed loop", referring to a way of isolating people within a "bubble" to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

China denies all abuses.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was "a mistake to agree to a visit under the circumstances".

US ambassador Nicholas Burns told Ms Bachelet he had "profound concerns" about attempts by Beijing to manipulate the trip, according to multiple people on a Monday call who asked for anonymity as they were not authorised to speak.

Overseas Uighurs have staged rallies in recent weeks pressing Ms Bachelet to visit relatives believed to be detained in Xinjiang.

"The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights should not look away," said senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch Maya Wang.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE