SVT reporter on China’s criticism of UN report: ‘It gets insulted quite easily’

According to the UN report, there is support for allegations of human rights violations and systematic suppression of ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Stories of torture are seen as credible and the United Nations is calling on the international community to take urgent action. Ulrika Bergstein says the reason the report is now released has a lot to do with Michelle Bachelet’s resignation.

– Michelle Bachelet and her entourage were able to visit Xinjiang and China in May this year, after nearly a year of delay and many back and forth, says Ulrika Bergstein.

“Like something in a worse spy reel”

SVT’s Asia correspondent Ulrika Bergstein has covered the case for several years, and during a trip to the county she ended up in a situation with the local police which she herself described as “something in an even worse spy role.”

Journalists are constantly asked to go there to see that the accusations of human rights violations and the Western world’s image of the region are untrue. But 20 minutes after we had checked in to our hotel in Kashgar, we were called by the police, who threateningly described how things would work out for us if we filmed people who didn’t want to be photographed, even though filming in public is already allowed in China, as Says.

How did China respond to the report and what is happening now? Hear from SVT’s Asia correspondent in the clip above.