So far, China has only been fussing behind the scenes to try to bury a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the crackdown in Xinjiang, where Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are victims of a policy of forced assimilation. On July 26, she changed her strategy by publishing an open letter presenting this report as the work of “some anti-Chinese forces, full of political ulterior motives”. On its Twitter account, the Chinese mission in Geneva writes “An open letter from nearly a thousand NGOs opposing the publication of the so-called Xinjiang study by the High Commission, and calling on the High Commission to stand on the right side of history and not publish a study full of lies ».
The maneuver is crude: the letter is published by the official daily China Dailyand the “NGOs” in question are all associations closely linked to the Chinese Communist Party, of which more than seven hundred are based in Xinjiang, such as the Xinjiang Association for State-owned Enterprises, a few official friendship associations with neighboring countries of China, including the Pakistani-Chinese Friendship Association, but above all, many who have nothing to do with the Xinjiang issue: the Chinese Flower Association, the Great Wall Society and the Chinese Association darts players, are thus among the signatories.
Written by the teams of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the report has been ready since the fall of 2021, but its publication has since been postponed, apparently pending a trip from the high- curator, Michelle Bachelet, in China, which finally took place in May and during which she traveled to Xinjiang. The United States and the European Union urged Mr.me Bachelet to publish it. The UN organization seems to be playing for time: the report is now “being finalized”, after being sent to China for feedback. It should be published by the end of Mr.me Bachelet on August 31, a spokesman recently quoted by Reuters. According to a source within the Office of the High Commissioner, the information gathered in the file is based on interviews with Uighurs and sources “open” such as the work of NGOs, researchers and journalists over the past four years, and satellite images. They are not exceptional, but have the merit of bringing the seal of the UN to this sensitive subject.
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