US, China envoys spar over racism at UN meeting

NEW YORK • The United States ambassador to the United Nations, who is black, clashed with her Chinese counterpart on Friday when she described her own experience with racism as a challenge, but said that for millions of people in countries like China and Myanmar, it was deadly.

During a UN General Assembly meeting to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: "Racism was and continues to be a daily challenge wherever we are. And for millions, it's more than a challenge. It's deadly."

Like in Myanmar, she said, "where Rohingya and others have been oppressed, abused and killed in staggering numbers. Or in China, where the government has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uighurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang".

China's deputy UN Ambassador Dai Bing responded that Ms Thomas-Greenfield had "in an exceptional case admitted to her country's ignoble human rights record, but that does not give her country the licence to get on a high horse and tell other countries what to do".

"If the US truly cared about human rights, they should address the deep-seated problems of racial discrimination, social injustice and police brutality on their own soil," Mr Dai told the 193-member General Assembly.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield, who said she is a descendant of slaves, recalled her own experiences with racism such as working as a teenage babysitter when the child asked "if I was an 'n-word' because her dad had used that word for me".

The police killing last May of Mr George Floyd in Minnesota and other black Americans elsewhere in the US sparked protests against racism and excessive use of police force across the nation last year.

"We've flaws. Deep, serious flaws. But we talk about them. We work to address them. And we press on, in hopes that we can leave the country better than we found it," said Ms Thomas-Greenfield.

China has been widely criticised for repressing Uighur Muslims and other minorities at locations in Xinjiang, which it says are vocational training centres to stamp out extremism. It denies accusations of abuse. Ms Dai said there was no "genocide" in Xinjiang.

REUTERS