WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd September, 2022) The United States welcomes outgoing High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet's assessment on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
"The United States welcomes this important report, which describes authoritatively the appalling treatment and abuses of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC)," Blinken said in a press release.
Bachelet conducted an official visit to China May 23-28 and wrote a report that said the allegations of patterns of human rights abuses in Xinjiang are credible.
Some of the report's recommendations to China include releasing all individuals arbitrarily deprived of liberty; clarifying information of the whereabouts of detained individuals; investigating human rights violations in detention facilities and allowing establishing a UN Torture and Discrimination Department and an independent mechanism to conduct oversight.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a daily news briefing on Thursday that the damning report was "orchestrated and produced by the US and some Western forces and is completely illegal, null and void."
Blinken said the United States will continue to hold China to account and call on Beijing to release individuals allegedly unjustly detained and to allow independent investigators full and unhindered access to Xinjiang, Tibet, and across the PRC.
