Attempts to use Xinjiang-related issues to keep China down will get nowhere: spokesperson

Special: Xinjiang

The facts have proven time and again that politicizing human rights and practicing double standards is deeply unpopular and attempts to use Xinjiang-related issues to keep China down or contain it will get nowhere, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

According to media reports, the 51st session of the Human Rights Council voted down a U.S.-led draft decision on Xinjiang on Oct. 6.

In response to a media query, the spokesperson said that for some time now, the U.S. and some other Western countries have been misinforming the public about Xinjiang and seeking political manipulation in the name of human rights simply to smear China's image and contain China's development.

Despite facts and truths, these countries propagated falsehoods on Xinjiang at the Human Rights Council and put together a draft decision on that erroneous basis in an attempt to use UN human rights bodies as a tool to interfere in China's internal affairs and to serve the agenda of using Xinjiang to contain China, the spokesperson added.

"The international community would not be easily misled. Despite pressure from the U.S. and some other Western countries on the member states, the draft decision ended up unsupported by the majority of the Human Rights Council membership, especially many members of the developing world," the spokesperson said, adding that the agenda pushed by the U.S. and some other Western forces has again failed to gain international support.

"The issues related to Xinjiang are not about human rights. They are about countering violent terrorism, radicalization and separatism," the spokesperson said.

Thanks to strenuous efforts, there has been no violent terrorist incident in Xinjiang for over five consecutive years. The human rights of people of all ethnic backgrounds in Xinjiang are protected like never before, the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said that the international community is clearly aware that the ultimate motive of the U.S. and some other Western countries behind their Xinjiang narrative is to contain China and does not like this pattern of using human rights as a pretext to meddle in other countries' internal affairs. In recent years, nearly 100 countries, including many Islamic countries, have spoken out at the Human Rights Council, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly and elsewhere openly to support China's just position on issues related to Xinjiang and oppose using these issues to interfere in China's internal affairs.

"The facts have proven time and again that politicizing human rights and practicing double standards is deeply unpopular and attempts to use Xinjiang-related issues to keep China down or contain it will get nowhere," the spokesperson said.

The issues that the Human Rights Council truly needs to focus on are the serious human rights violations concerning the U.S., the UK and some Western forces, including systemic racism and racial discrimination, the rights of refugees and migrants, rampant gun violence, unilateral coercive measures, and massive killings of innocent civilians in overseas military operations. The victims are still waiting for justice to be done and the international community demands accountability, the spokesperson added.

"We urge the U.S. and some other Western forces to abandon political manipulation, disinformation and suppression, return to the track of dialogue and cooperation, and make real contributions to the global advancement of human rights," the spokesperson said.