UN RIGHTS CHIEF’S CHINA VISIT

Blinken slams Chinese ‘manipulation’

AFP, Washington

The United States expressed concern on Saturday over China’s “efforts to restrict and manipulate” the UN human rights chief’s visit to the Xinjiang region where Beijing is accused of detaining over a million people in indoctrination camps.

United States has labeled China’s treatment of Uyghurs a “genocide.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Chinese authorities would not allow Michelle Bachelet full access during her long-planned trip, saying the United States was “concerned” about China’s “efforts to restrict and manipulate her visit.”

Bachelet defended her visit earlier on Saturday while still inside China, saying it was “not an investigation” but called on Beijing to avoid “arbitrary and indiscriminate measures” in its crackdown in Xinjiang.

She said the trip was a chance for her to speak with “candour” to Chinese authorities as well as civil society groups and academics.

Her visit was the first to China by a UN high commissioner for human rights in 17 years and comes after painstaking negotiations over the conditions of the visit.