Late UN report on Xinjiang released

The report on Xinjiang will come out at the end of the day, says Jeremy Lawrence, a spokesman for Michelle Bachelet.

This means that the report must be issued within Bachelet’s final hours in her position as head of human rights. The report has been repeatedly delayed and the patience of human rights groups and some countries has become impatient.

Earlier on Wednesday, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the report was a “farce” and hoped Bachelet would not publish it.

– We are firmly opposed to the release of the so-called report on Xinjiang by the UN Human Rights Office. He said this report was a farce, coordinated by the United States and a small number of Western powers.

More recently, last week, Michelle Bachelet said it was unclear whether the report would be published before her term expired.

In May, Bachelet made a controversial visit to China, visiting, among other things, Xinjiang, where brutal repression against ethnic groups is seen as systemic. The US government even called China’s behavior in Xinjiang a “genocide.”

The trip sparked sharp international criticism, as many countries considered it a propaganda trip organized by the Chinese Communist Party. Then Bachelet claimed that the six-day trip could improve ongoing communications with China and Beijing.