In response to the erroneous remarks made by the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and a few other countries on the so-called OHCHR assessment of human rights concerns in Xinjiang, the Spokesperson of the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations issued a statement, stressing that the so-called assessment is an illegal document and a perverse product of the US and some other Western forces’ coercive diplomacy. Their lies about Xinjiang can deceive no one in the world, and their attempt to contain China by disrupting Xinjiang is doomed to fail.

The Spokesperson pointed out that the so-called assessment is an illegal document through and through. OHCHR drafted and released the so-called assessment without the mandate from the Human Rights Council or the consent of the Chinese Government, which is a serious violation of OHCHR’s mandate. The so-called assessment is based on the presumption of guilt. It takes the words of a few anti-China separatists as the main source of information, while deliberately ignoring the authoritative information and materials provided by the Chinese Government, and therefore has zero credibility. The so-called assessment distorts China’s laws and policies, smears China’s efforts against terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang, and diverges significantly from the statement issued by the High Commissioner for Human Rights after her visit to China. It has seriously tarnished the professionalism and integrity of human rights work, and interfered in and undermined the international human rights cooperation.

The Spokesperson stressed that the so-called assessment is a perverse product of the US and some other Western forces’ coercive diplomacy. Faced with the coercion by some individual Western forces toward the High Commissioner and OHCHR, a few members of the Office have bent over backwards to comply with their demands. Under the pressure and interference of some Western forces, the Office has been reduced to their accomplice to contain developing countries and a tool to serve Western political interests. Facts have clearly shown that the United States and some other Western forces do not care about human rights, but only use human rights issues as a pretext to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and put their own interests above the interests of others. They have become the biggest saboteur of international rules and order.

The Spokesperson pointed out that the so-called assessment is totally inconsistent with the actual situation in Xinjiang and finds no support. Xinjiang is a place once suffered hugely from terrorist attacks. Yet thanks to the efforts against terrorism and extremism in accordance with law, Xinjiang has not had any terrorist incident in the past five years, and the human rights of people of all ethnic groups have been well protected. The people in Xinjiang are in the best position to tell the world what the human rights conditions are like there. People who have been to Xinjiang all agree that Xinjiang is a wonderful land. Fair-minded people can tell right from wrong. In recent years, nearly 100 countries have spoken up at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, etc. every year to support China’s legitimate position on Xinjiang-related issues. More than 60 countries have sent a co-signed letter to express their serious concerns over the so-called assessment. Nearly 1,000 non-governmental organizations from across the world have written to the High Commissioner to express their opposition. The poorly planned farce by the US and some other Western forces has already been seen through and completely collapsed.

The Spokesperson said that it is the US and a few other countries that have been bringing trouble and chaos to the world. Fabricating the so-called assessment and throwing mud at China cannot cover up the US and some other Western forces’ own human rights woes. What the international community should really be concerned about is the genocide, including cultural genocide, of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples by the US and some other Western forces, the contemporary forms of slavery and forced labor realized by human trafficking from abroad, the systematic racism against ethnic minorities, the gun violence resulting in tens of thousands of civilian casualties every year, the historical regression in women's rights, the torture and ill-treatment in overseas detention facilities such as Guantanamo, the indiscriminate killings of civilians in overseas military operations, and other stains of the century in the human rights track records of the US and some other Western forces. OHCHR should earnestly listen to the cries for justice from developing countries, immediately investigate human rights violations of the US and some other Western forces, and issue a report thereon, so as to show accountability to the world and the vast number of victims.