UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet arrived in China yesterday, the first trip by a holder of the office since 2005 amid concerns that it could lead to an endorsement rather than scrutiny of China’s human rights record.
During the six-day trip, Bachelet plans to visit Xinjiang, where the UN High Commissioner’s office last year said that it believes the mostly Muslim Uighurs have been unlawfully detained, mistreated and forced to work.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it welcomes her, but rejects “political manipulation” when asked by reporters if she could visit the detention centers, re-education camps and prisons where rights groups say Uighurs have been mistreated.
Photo: Reuters
China has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of Uighurs.
“The purpose of the private visit is to enhance exchanges and cooperation between both sides, and promote the international cause of human rights,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told a news conference yesterday.
He said that Bachelet’s visit would be conducted in a “closed loop,” referring to a way of isolating people within a “bubble” to prevent COVID-19 from potentially spreading.
That means Bachelet would not be able to have free and spontaneous in-person meetings with anyone who has not been prearranged by China to be brought inside the “bubble.”
Wang also said that the media would not be traveling with Bachelet because of the pandemic.
The trip has been long in the making after Bachelet in 2018 said that she wanted unfettered access to Xinjiang. China said the visit should not be based on a presumption of guilt.
The World Uyghur Congress urged Bachelet in a letter to ensure that her team can move freely, access all detention facilities and have unsupervised contact with Uighurs.
“We are concerned the trip might do more harm than good. China could use it for propaganda purposes,” World Uyghur Congress spokesperson Zumretay Arkin said.
International scrutiny of the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang heightened in 2018 after the UN said that 1 million Uighurs were being held in “massive internment camps” set up for political indoctrination.
China initially denied the existence of any camps, then later admitted it had set up “vocational training centers” with dormitories where people can “voluntarily” check themselves in to learn about law, Chinese-language and vocational skills.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS