United Nations: China’s mass detention and surveillance of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province came under fire at the United Nations Tuesday, with 23 nations, mostly western, backing a British statement condemning Beijing’s human rights record.
But China’s allies countered with a statement of their own that won even broader support, with some 54 nations backing a Belarus text that heaped effusive praise on Beijing’s “remarkable achievements in the field of human rights.”
They included Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Serbia, which have all been criticised for their own rights records.
The duelling statements at the UN General Assembly are non-binding, but highlight the global divide on China’s human rights record, particularly as Beijing moves to flex its diplomatic and economic clout abroad.
Rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up in internment camps in Xinjiang.
After initially denying their existence, Beijing now defends the camps as “vocational education centers” that are necessary to counter religious extremism and terrorism.
China has embarked on a global public relations campaign to win support for its Xinjiang policies, even convincing Muslim-majority nations such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to voice support.