If anyone doubted China’s determination to obscure the truth about its treatment of its Muslim minorities, Beijing’s long campaign to block publication of a damning UN report on its actions in Xinjiang tells its own story. That report, by the UN high commissioner for human rights, was finally published on Wednesday, after a full year of Chinese pressure to suppress it. There are serious questions to be asked about the UN’s willingness to indulge Beijing for that long, but the report’s publication, which occurred on UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet’s final day in office, is an important milestone on the road towards accountability for the appalling abuses against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in northwest China.
The report finds that the Chinese government committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. It finds there is credible evidence that Uyghurs imprisoned in detention camps were victims of torture and sexual and gender-based violence. The nature of the evidence will not come as a surprise; non-governmental organisations have for many years been uncovering alarming information about the treatment of more than one million Uyghurs and other minorities who have been subjected to mass internments and forced labour. And the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other states have made allegations of genocide against Beijing. Nonetheless, it is important that the UN’s authority should be attached to these findings. A key line in the report, and one that has already made headlines around the world, is this: “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups ... may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
The weight of evidence about what is occurring in Xinjiang is now overwhelming. But the latest report, and the long struggle to ensure it was published, will be for nothing unless its findings have consequences. The next step should be a formal UN investigation into abuses in Xinjiang.