Washington, May 29 (FN Agency) United States government expressed concern 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 more than a million people in indoctrination camps, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was concerned that the conditions Chinese authorities imposed on Michelle Bachelet’s visit will not enable her to conduct “a complete and independent assessment of the human rights environment in China, including in Xinjiang, where genocide and crimes against humanity are ongoing”.
Bachelet had 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, adding that the trip was a chance for her to speak with “candour” to Chinese authorities as well as civil society groups and academics. Bachelet’s 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. She began her trip on Monday in the southern city of Guangzhou before heading to Xinjiang. But her access was limited as authorities had arranged for her to travel in a “closed loop”, isolating people within a virtual bubble to prevent the spread of Covid-19, with no foreign press.