Xinjiang-related draft decision "intends to contain China": diplomat

Special: Xinjiang

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday rejected a Xinjiang-related draft decision, which a Chinese envoy in Geneva described as "with real intention to take advantage of UN human rights bodies to interfere in China's internal affairs and use Xinjiang-related issues to contain China."

The United States and some other countries tabled the draft decision and packaged it as a procedural issue, attempting to justify the unauthorized and illegal "assessment," and to put Xinjiang-related issues that do not exist at all on the agenda of the council, said Chen Xu, head of the Chinese Mission to UN in Geneva.

"The Xinjiang-related issues are by no means human rights issues. They are about counter-terrorism, deradicalization and anti-separatism," Chen said before Thursday's voting at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council.

He told the council that after arduous efforts, Xinjiang has seen no violent and terrorist incident for five consecutive years. The human rights of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected to the fullest extent.

Chen pointed out that over the last six decades, the Uyghur population in Xinjiang expanded from 2.2 million to around 12 million, and average life expectancy increased from 30 to 74.7 years.

"Turning a blind eye to these facts and truth, the United States and some other countries had fabricated and spread numerous lies and rumors, in an attempt to smear China, undermine Xinjiang's stability and contain China's development," he said. "It is a typical example of political manipulation and the gravest violation of the human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang."

Chen further stressed that so far, all country-specific resolutions of the Human Rights Council are aimed at developing countries, and the United States and some other countries, in disregard of their own serious human rights violations, are indulged in pointing fingers at others.

"This is typical double-standards. The international community must not allow any attempt to politicize or instrumentalize human rights issues, with a view to preventing multilateral human rights bodies from serving the political goals of certain countries," the Chinese ambassador said.