UN envoy defends China trip; Berlin’s concerns affect VWAFP and REUTERS, BEIJING and BERLINUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet yesterday said her contentious visit to China was “not an investigation,” and insisted she had unsupervised access during meetings in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of widespread human rights abuses. A still image taken from a handout video made available by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shows UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet speaking to journalists during a virtual press conference in Guangzhou, China, yesterday. It is the first trip to China by the UN’s top rights envoy in 17 years and comes after painstaking negotiations over the conditions of her visit. The ministry said it had turned down four applications from a company over human rights concerns in Xinjiang, but declined to name the company. “The human rights situation in Xinjiang has become worse in recent years and involves forced labor and mass internment of Uighurs,” the ministry said.

Source: Taipei Times May 29, 2022 11:02 UTC