China dismisses UN's report on Xinjiang as 'lies'
China on Thursday dismissed a report on Xinjiang by the United Nations human rights office as a ‘farce’ based on false information, saying it’s designed to be used as a political tool by the west against the country. In a statement posted on its website, the spokesperson for China’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, Liu Yuyin, said the 48-page report has slandered China, interfered in its internal affairs, and seriously damaged the credibility and impartiality of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). “The OHCHR’s so-called ‘assessment’ is based on the presumption of guilt, using false information and lies fabricated by anti-China forces as the main source of information, deliberately ignoring authoritative information and objective materials provided by the Chinese government,” Liu said. “This so-called ‘assessment’ is a farce planned by the United States, western countries and anti-China forces.” He also accused the UN rights office of ignoring human rights achievements made together by “people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang”, noting that it has been free from terrorism for more than five years. The OHCHR’s report said China's “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity. It added that "serious human rights violations have been committed" in Xinjiang "in the context of the government's application of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies". UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet released the report just minutes before her four-year term ended. She visited China in May. Speaking ahead of the report's release, China's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Zhang Jun, said Beijing had repeatedly voiced opposition to it. He said the UN human rights chief should not interfere in China's internal affairs. "We all know, so well, that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely fabricated lie out of political motivations and its purpose definitely is to undermine China's stability and to obstruct China's development," Zhang told reporters on Wednesday. "We do not think it will produce any good to anyone, it simply undermines the cooperation between the United Nations and a member state," he said. (RTHK, Agencies)