China's Wang Yi urges UN rights envoy to 'clarify misinformation'

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told UN envoy Michelle Bachelet that Beijing hopes her visit will help "clarify misinformation" about its human rights record.

Wang met the human rights commissioner at the start of her six-day trip and blasted "some countries and anti-China forces" for spreading "false information" and "vilifying China with slanderous attacks", according to a report by state news agency Xinhua.

"Their purpose is to use human rights issues as excuses to suppress China and to politicise and weaponise the human rights issue," said Wang, during the meeting on Monday in Guangzhou, southern China.

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The meeting with Wang was Bachelet's first with a Chinese leader during her visit. The human rights commissioner and her delegation will also travel to Xinjiang in China's northwest and Beijing.

Wang said the UN should promote cooperation instead of confrontation, based on the principle of mutual respect and equal treatment, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

"Multilateral human rights institutions should serve as a major venue for cooperation and dialogue rather than a new battlefield for division and confrontation," he said.

Wang also stressed that China "made the protection of citizens' legitimate rights and interests its basic task", adding that "safeguarding the rights of ethnic minorities was an important part of its work".

Bloomberg reported that Bachelet also held a video call on Monday with about 100 mostly Beijing-based, Western diplomats, telling them her visit would not be an "investigation", in an apparent attempt to manage expectations of the trip.

Bloomberg said Bachelet told the diplomats on the call that setting high expectations would lead to disappointment. According to the report, she was addressing concerns raised during the conversation over whether she would be granted unfettered access to Xinjiang.

China has been widely accused of widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang, especially against members of the Uygur ethnic community and other Muslim groups. Beijing has vehemently denied the accusations, saying they are lies to smear the country.

The last time a UN high commissioner on human rights visited China was in 2005, when Louise Arbour spent one week in the country.

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that both sides agreed there would be no reporters accompanying Bachelet during the visit.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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