U.N. Human Rights Council Hosts Chinese Propaganda Denying Uyghur Genocide

The Chinese government newspaper Global Times reported on Thursday that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) accepted the testimony of a pro-regime “local” from East Turkistan who claimed extensive evidence of slavery, genocide, and other human rights atrocities in his region all constituted “an absolute lie.”

The UNHRC began its latest session on Monday in the shadow of a widely condemned visit by former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to East Turkistan last May, where she announced that Beijing had “dismantled” its network of hundreds of concentration camps throughout the region and praised dictator Xi Jinping for the alleged “tremendous achievements” China had made in human rights. Bachelet stepped down in August, immediately after the publication of a report from her office that accused China of “crimes against humanity,” but did not agree with the American government and several other world powers that the atrocities committed against Turkic people in the region fit the definition of genocide.

The report also did not mention slavery occurring in the region, though it allowed for evidence of “forced labor.” A separate U.N. official, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Tomoya Obokata, wrote in a report also published in August that China was implementing two separate policies to enslave Uyghurs and other Turkic people in East Turkistan.

East Turkistan, which China refers to using the Mandarin name “Xinjiang,” is the westernmost territory under Beijing rule. Its native population is majority ethnic Uyghur, with significant pockets of Kazakh and Kyrgyz groups. Eyewitness testimonies and evidence unveiled by years of research has documented a campaign, led by dictator Xi, to replace that population with ethnic Han people native to eastern China. Xi has built up to 1,200 concentration camps since 2017 and imprisoned up to 3 million people in them. Survivors say camp prisoners face incessant communist indoctrination, forced sterilization, gang rape, drugging, slavery, and medical testing consistent with live organ harvesting.

The Uyghur Tribunal, an international group of legal scholars and other experts, concluded after extensive study last year that China is guilty of genocide “beyond a reasonable doubt,” urging global platforms like the Human Rights Council to act to prevent further death and abuse.

China is a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Its representatives have used much of this week’s session to complain about the report, even as it omitted references to genocide and slavery.

According to the Global Times, the Human Rights Council listened to the testimony of “a local from Xinjiang” identified only as “Merdan,” who claimed that the region is a paradise for non-Han ethnic groups and slavery does not exist there.

“Merdan, a local from Xinjiang, said during the session that his family members, friends and classmates have all been fully enjoying good policies that the country has implemented in either education or employment,” according to the Times. “Actually, people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are able to choose how they make a living based on their own willingness. They are able to sign legal job contracts with companies, earn a salary and choose working locations freely. Either their rights for a payment, holidays or social insurance are legally protected, Merdan said.”

The state propaganda outlet claimed that Merdan objected to American sanctions on companies that benefit from Uyghur slavery in the region, “urging the US to correct its mistakes and stop its hegemony at the excuse of human rights.”
The testimony occurred after the opening day of the current Council session, Tuesday, saw China’s diplomat on the body rant about “disinformation” regarding the Uyghur genocide, the mass enslavement of its population, and other abuses.

Chinese ambassador to the U.N. Chen Xu said Beijing was “deeply worried” that the report on Bachelet’s visit “will undermine dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights, and exaggerate the existing trend of politicisation and polarisation at the Human Rights Council.”

Chen’s presence at the Council was already a minor victory for the United Nations, as he bombastically claimed last week that China would stop cooperating with the United Nations in its entirety over the report.

The Agence France-Presse (AFP) observed that Chen brought with him a parade of “pro-China non-governmental organizations” to receive a platform at the Human Rights Council.

“At least four separate pro-China non-governmental organisations – sometimes referred to as Gongos, or governmental non-governmental organisations – came to Beijing’s defence,” AFP noted. “The China NGO Network for International Exchanges for instance decried that the UN rights office had published ‘a groundless report on Xinjiang, which maliciously discredited the human rights condition’ in the region.”

The Chinese also presented a statement signed by about 20 other countries condemning the human rights office report concluding that Beijing was guilty of crimes against humanity before the Council. China routinely rallies its allies – impoverished states benefitting from Chinese financing or fellow communist regimes with poor human rights records – to present statements and resolutions in defense of its ongoing genocide.

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