China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang – including mass extrajudicial detentions, family separations and forced labour – is by now well documented, despite the secrecy surrounding it. Yet when Michelle Bachelet visited the region earlier this year, the usually outspoken UN human rights chief adopted some of the Chinese Communist party’s framing of the issue. As a long-awaited report into the region remained unpublished on her desk, human rights groups grew concerned that it might be watered down or suppressed entirely.
But on Wednesday night, months after its completion and only minutes before she left office, she finally issued the document. Reading its 46 pages, it is little surprise that Beijing sought to block its release. It states clearly that “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs may amount to crimes against humanity. China embarked on what it portrays as a counter-extremism and counter-terrorism crackdown after deadly attacks inside and outside Xinjiang. But as the report makes clear, the official conception of terrorism and extremism is so vague that an extraordinarily wide range of normal activity has been targeted, to devastating effect.
