RFI Executive Vice President Eric Patterson authored a piece published this week in Providence on the UN’s recently released report on China’s treatment of its Uighur population, despite sustained pressure from Beijing to quash the report. Patterson writes:

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently released a long-delayed report on China’s appalling treatment of its Uighur minority.  The report is another layer of evidence of Beijing’s systematic and horrific abuse of Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities.

Why the delay? Why did it take several months for UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet to publish the report, only doing so due to sustained pressure from Western governments 11 minutes before her term expired?  The simple answer is Chinese bullying. According to Reuters and corroborated by at least three governments, Beijing quietly circulated a letter to government delegations asking them to pressure Bachelet to quash the report. What is unknown is just how strong-armed China’s tactics have been toward Bachelet personally and toward the 47 governments of the UN Human Rights Council. Some probably needed no inducements to block the report since the UN Human Rights Council includes Cuba, Libya, Venezuela, and Sudan.

China has sought to quietly but firmly suppress international criticism of its actions. Last year Science reported China’s intense pressure at the World Health Organization (WHO) lest it criticize China’s COVID-19 policies. The Guardian has reported that the reason that no Muslim-majority government, from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia, actively criticizes China’s crimes against the Muslim Uighurs is due to explicit economic carrots and sticks.

Read the full article: “UN Releases Uighur Human Rights Report Despite Chinese Intimidation.”