Dai Bing (front), China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, speaks during the opening of the main session of the Fifth Committee of the 77th UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Oct 3, 2022. Photo:Xinhua

A Chinese envoy to the UN on Thursday called on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to conduct an investigation and seek accountability for US infringements on human rights, and emphasized that the US and a number of other countries should address their poor track record in their own human rights issues, according to China's Permanent Mission to the UN.

Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks at the interactive dialogue with Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly held on Thursday.

Dai pointed out that the US and a number of other countries should face up to and deal with their own human rights issues, including the genocide of Native Americans, systemic racial discrimination and police brutality against ethnic minorities, and unilateral coercive measures against developing countries.

Dai refuted the US, EU, Japan, and other countries that have used human rights as an excuse to smear China. "Those countries, with their hypocrisy and double standards, are in fact the biggest saboteur of international human rights cooperation," Dai said.

The so-call assessment on Northwest China's Xinjiang region produced by the OHCHR does not have any legal force, does not have the consent of the country concerned, and does not have any facts to support its claims, Dai pointed out. "It is totally illegal and invalid." 

The assessment is markedly different from the statement by the previous High Commissioner after her visit to China, and was hastily released only 15 minutes before the High Commissioner left the office, which means it is a perverse product of coercive diplomacy by the US and some other Western countries, Dai noted. 

On October 6, the 51st session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) voted down a US-led draft decision on China's Xinjiang region, which was a victory for facts and truth, and for all developing countries, Dai said.

"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 on October 6, commenting on the HRC's vote against a draft decision on China's Xinjiang region.

As an international financial hub, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is showing great vitality through the implementation of One Country, Two Systems. In Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, we have scored human rights progress across the board, said Dai. The world has already seen through the lies on China's Xinjiang and Xizang fabricated by the US, and US' attempts to destabilize China are doomed to fail, Dai pointed out.

Promoting and protecting human rights through solidarity and cooperation is the shared responsibility of the international community. It is the people of a country that have the biggest say in the quality of human rights there. China does not accept any condescending lecturing on human rights, and opposes the politicization of and double standards in human rights issues, Dai said.



Global Times