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UN rights envoy defends controversial China visit

BEIJING, 29 May 2022, (TON): The UN rights envoy said “her contentious visit to China was not an investigation and insisted she had unsupervised access during meetings in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of widespread human rights abuses.”

Michelle Bachelet’s long-planned trip this week has taken her to the far-western region, where Beijing is accused of the detention of over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, forced sterilization of women and coerced labor.

The United States has labelled China’s actions in Xinjiang a genocide and crimes against humanity, allegations vehemently denied by Beijing which says its security crackdown was a necessary response to extremism.

Bachelet has come under fire from rights groups and Uyghurs overseas, who say she has stumbled into a six-day Communist Party propaganda tour, including a meeting with President Xi Jinping in which state media suggested she supported China’s vision of human rights.

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