søndag 11. oktober 2020

Which Countries Are For or Against China’s Xinjiang Policies?

In the summer of 2019, China and the West sent the United Nations Human Rights Council and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights dueling letters, backed by different lists of countries, that either condemned Chinese policies in the western region of Xinjiang or supported Beijing’s efforts to combat “terrorism and extremism.”

In a reprise this week, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen presented a statement to the U.N., within the context of the General Assembly’s Third Committee (on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Issues) on behalf of 39 countries, calling on China to “respect human rights, particularly the rights of persons belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet.” In return, Cuba’s U.N. Representative Ana Silvia Rodríguez Abascal read a statement on behalf of 45 countries in defense of Chinese policies.