UN report on ‘Xinjiang slavery’ politically motivated

Published: August 22,2022

By staff writer 

Allegations that China is overseeing the forced labourof Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang are “credible and persuasive”, a UN expert on slavery Tomoya Obokata, a Japanese academic, who is a special rapporteur for the United Nations, wrote. In a report to the UN General Assembly the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, claims that more than one million ethnic minority Muslims have been detained in internment camps. 

The report which comes ahead of the 51st session of the Human Rights Council, which will sit from September 12 to October 7, is seen as a western plot to tarnish the image of China, disregarding challenges of Islamic radicalism and terrorism that rocked the Uighur region where vocational skills education and training center system, were a home grown solution for counter terrorism measures to overcome security threats.  

It was established that the sources of the UN rapporteur on the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region receive funding from the U.S. which is well known for its position that is against China’s and  has put in place alternative plans undermines   the Belt and Road Initiative, which passes through Xinjiang. 

Among Obokata’s citations is “the World Uyghur Congress” funded by the National Endowment for Democracy. “The Center for Strategic and International Studies” (CSIS) and “the Australian Strategic Policy Institute” (ASPI) both funded by Western governments, weapons manufacturers, big tech, and wealthy people, political analysts reveal. The CSIS is also known to get big funding from the Taiwan regional authorities. The above institutions are the ones always quoted in most US publications and media, yet they do not provide credible evidence for their claims of human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. President Xi Jinping visited the region in July and hailed the “great progress” made in reform and development.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbinaccused Obokata of choosing “to believe in lies and disinformation about Xinjiang spread by the US and some other Western countries and anti-China forces.”

He also accused Obokata of abusing his authority as a special investigator to “smear and denigrate China and serve as a political tool for anti-China forces.” He accused unnamed “forces” of fabricating disinformation on forced labour “to undermine Xinjiang’s prosperity and stability and contain China’s development and revitalization.”

“China strongly condemns this,” Wang said. “There has never been `forced labour in Xinjiang.”

He said China protects the rights and interests of workers from all ethnic groups to seek employment, participate in economic and social life, “and share the dividends of socioeconomic progress.”