Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese boycott effort could backfire, making the event more of a success.
China’s U.N. mission, in a secret, sternly worded letter this week, urged the global body’s other members to boycott an event that will put Beijing’s atrocities against Uyghurs front and center during next week’s high-profile U.N. General Assembly debate, National Review has exclusively learned.
The note, issued to all other countries’ U.N. outposts on Monday, said the Chinese mission “has the honor to express our resolute opposition to this event and strongly recommend your mission NOT to participate in this anti-China event.”
While it is addressed to all U.N. missions, the letter almost certainly won’t deter Western countries from participating in the event, slated for Tuesday, though it could have a chilling effect on the participation of developing countries in China’s economic orbit.
Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. ambassador at large for global criminal justice, and Belen Martinez Carbonnell, the European Union’s managing director for multilateral affairs, will deliver keynote addresses at the gathering, which is being organized by the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank and Human Rights Watch. Diplomats from several other countries have been invited to take part, and human-rights experts will also give speeches.
The Chinese missive slammed the two groups as “notorious anti-China organizations” and referred to the event as an act of interference in China’s affairs.
“They are obsessed with fabricating lies and spreading malicious disinformation about Xinjiang with no respect for truth, and are plotting to use human rights issues as a political tool to undermine Xinjiang’s stability and disrupt China’s peaceful development,” the Chinese mission’s letter further states.
The State Department said in 2021 that the Chinese Communist Party is carrying out genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the region. Several other countries’ parliaments and human-rights groups have also concluded that Beijing’s policies, which seek to stamp out the Uyghurs as a people, are crimes against humanity.
A spokesman for the U.S. mission to the U.N. reiterated Washington’s stance in a statement tonight, adding that it will continue to raise the issue directly with China and to seek accountability for the atrocities “wherever they occur–within the PRC, and in cases of transnational repression, outside of its borders.”
The spokesman slammed the Chinese mission’s letter as an act of repression.
“Bringing attention to the facts is an integral part of this effort. The PRC’s continued attempts to intimidate and silence those speaking out on human rights is yet another example of its global campaign of transnational repression and it will only increase international scrutiny of the atrocities in Xinjiang and human rights abuses throughout the country,” he said.
The Chinese mission declined to comment.
The U.N. mission of the EU did not immediately respond to National Review’s request for comment on Friday evening.
China’s letter-writing campaign is “a brazen assault on the very integrity of the UN system,” Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer and Atlantic Council fellow who will speak at the event, told NR.
“By intimidating participation from various UN missions, they seek to silence the voices of top experts from foremost human rights organizations who bear witness to China’s relentless atrocities. I urge global leaders, including the UN Secretary-General, to discern these patterns of human rights abuses, listen to our analysis, and take decisive action to end the atrocities against the Uyghur,” Asat said.
Chinese officials have variously denied and whitewashed the atrocities, claiming that the notorious mass-detention network in Xinjiang is merely part of a vocational-training and poverty-reduction initiative that counters violent extremism.
The Chinese mission’s letter echoed those talking points: “The current situation in Xinjiang is at its best in history with social stability, high-quality economic growth, full victory in poverty alleviation, notable improvement in people’s livelihood, greater solidarity among all ethnic groups and harmony among different religions.”
Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese boycott effort could backfire, making the event more of a success.
“The fact that the Chinese delegation has taken the ridiculous step of urging UN member states not to attend an NGO event on Xinjiang shows how afraid they are of us. The Chinese delegation clearly doesn’t want diplomats, journalists and UN officials to hear the truth about their government’s appalling abuse of Uyghurs and other Turkic communities,” he told NR.
“We hope this helps fill the room even more,” he added, saying that attendees will learn more about the crimes against humanity and how they can help pursue justice.
China’s diplomats regularly undertake letter-writing campaigns to demand that other countries’ politicians, and U.N. officials, abide by the party’s line.
In recent years, Beijing has escalated its efforts to redefine how human rights are viewed internationally, as part of a campaign to win acceptance of its mass atrocities. To that end, the letter asserts that nearly 100 countries voiced their support in different ways for China’s policy on “governing Xinjiang.”
On Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry released a proposal “on the reform and development of global governance” — a lengthy policy document that sums up the ways in which the party seeks to reshape international institutions. That document expresses the view that “there is no one-size-fits-all model for promoting and protecting human rights.”