China: UN report on Xinjiang a mixture of misinformation

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin described the report by the United Nations Human Rights Office on the situation in Xinjiang as “a mixture of misinformation and lies that the West uses strategically against China.”

“The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has become a thug that colludes with the United States and the West against the vast majority of developing countries,” Wang was quoted by AFP as saying today.

In turn, China’s representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, expressed his country’s strong opposition to the report, saying, “We are all well aware that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely politically motivated lie whose purpose is certainly to undermine China’s stability and impede its development.”

The report, which Western diplomats and UN officials said had been ready for months, was published minutes before the end of the four-year term of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

Yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian stressed that the report was “a farce organized by the United States and many other Western powers.”

On more than one occasion, China has condemned the disinformation campaign led by certain countries about the situation in Xinjiang. Last July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed that some countries had manipulated issues related to Xinjiang and fabricated false information, noting that such attempts made under the pretext of human rights were in fact aimed at undermining the prosperity and stability of Xinjiang and containing China’s development and rejuvenation.

NR