President Xi pilloried after bad pictures: Baerbock appalled - China sees "lie of the century"
Created: 05/25/2022, 09:06
By: Christiane Kühl, Sven Hauberg, Christoph Gschoßmann
Chinese President Xi Jinping during his keynote address.
© imago-images
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has asked her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to clarify the situation in the camps in Xinjiang.
The USA also reacted.
Update from May 25, 8.40 a.m .:
China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping defended his human rights policy in conversation with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
"Human rights issues should not be politicized, instrumentalized or treated with double standards," Xi said on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The "development of human rights" in China "fits with the national conditions," Xi said accordingly.
Bachelet is currently in China and plans to visit the western region of Xinjiang starting Wednesday.
The former Chilean President is in the People's Republic at a sensitive time.
Leaked police data from Xinjiang is currently causing excitement and horror in the world.
They paint a picture of arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture and other human rights violations, especially against the Muslim Uyghur minority.
It is unclear whether the data was leaked specifically during Bachelet's trip.
German politicians were also shocked by the "Xinjiang Police Files" on Tuesday.
China, on the other hand, dismisses the allegations as the “lie of the century”.
CCTV's post did not name Xinjiang.
Instead, he quoted Xi as saying there is no "ideal nation" when it comes to human rights.
There is "no need for a 'teacher' ordering other countries around".
According to CCTV, speaking to Xi, Bachelet said the UN human rights office wanted to "intensify its cooperation with the Chinese side" and "make joint efforts to advance human rights development globally."
Bachelet also praised China's "efforts and achievements in eradicating poverty, protecting human rights and realizing economic and social development."
It is common in China that only positive statements from the guests appear on state TV during diplomatic visits.
The world will probably only find out what Bachelet criticized about China at the end of her journey.
She wants to give a press conference on Saturday
Uighur camps in Xinjiang (China): US government "shocked" by "Xinjiang Police Files"
Update from May 24, 9:58 p.m .:
The US government has been shocked by the recent revelations about human rights violations in the Chinese region of Xinjiang and has made the leadership in Beijing directly responsible for the actions against the Muslim Uyghur minority.
"We are appalled by the reports and the disturbing images," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday.
"It is very difficult to imagine that systemic efforts to suppress, arrest, wage a campaign of genocide and crimes against humanity do not have the blessing and approval of the highest circles of the government of the People's Republic of China." China must have everyone release those arbitrarily detained, close detention camps, and “end mass incarceration, torture, forced sterilization and the use of forced labour”.
Uyghur camp in Xinjiang (China): Baerbock via "Xinjiang Police Files"
Update from May 24, 8:38 p.m .:
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock commented again on the “Xinjiang Police Files”.
"I think everyone who sees these pictures gets chills down their spines," said Baerbock in Berlin.
They are "disturbing and frightening, and they underpin what has been around for a long time, that the most serious violations of human rights are being committed in Xinjiang".
Referring to her conversation with Wang Yi, she emphasized: "This is not something you can ignore, and it is also not something you can remain silent about." It is primarily up to China "to make it clear how they feel about it , and above all to explain why the attitude up to now has been that there are no human rights violations there”.
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Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) told
Spiegel
: "There must be a clear answer and further clarification internationally." The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen called on the federal government at
Spiegel
to communicate clearly "what consequences Germany will have from the new insights”.
Uyghur camp in Xinjiang (China): SPD demands consequences
Update from May 24, 5:11 p.m .:
How does Germany react to the “Xinjiang Police Files”?
Foreign politicians from the SPD parliamentary group have called for consequences after the new revelations about the persecution and mass internment of Uyghurs in the north-west Chinese region of Xinjiang.
German companies could not simply continue in Xinjiang, "consequences must be drawn," said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Michael Roth (SPD), the "Handelsblatt".
The so-called "Xinjiang Police Files" documented "in all cruelty the Orwellian extent of the Chinese system of oppression of the Uyghurs", criticized Roth.
"We must not close our eyes to the unimaginable suffering of the Uyghurs," demanded the SPD politician.
The SPD human rights politician Frank Schwabe now also sees companies like BASF and Volkswagen, which each have a plant in Xinjiang, as having an obligation.
"German companies have to stop their activities in Xinjiang," Schwabe also told the "Handelsblatt".
"Shocking reports" on China's torture camps: Baerbock talks to China's foreign minister
First report from May 24, 1:17 p.m .:
Berlin/Munich – On Tuesday, in the midst of the excitement about the data leak with cruel details from the internment facilities in Xinjiang, there was high-level contact with China.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock held a one-hour video conference with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
According to the Federal Foreign Office, she "also addressed the shocking reports and new documentation on the most serious violations of human rights in Xinjiang and called for the allegations to be clarified transparently".
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As is usual in diplomacy, Baerbock naturally emphasized “the importance of international cooperation”, especially given the difficult international situation.
But the Greens politician added, according to the statement: "However, such cooperation can only take place on the basis of the fundamental norms of the international order, which must be respected and defended by everyone." Germany "clearly appeals to all members of the international community, that they condemn the Russian war of aggression, which violates international law, and assume their responsibility to protect international law and the Charter of the United Nations".
Baerbock: Appeal to China in the Ukraine war
The words are a call to China to reconsider its stance on the Ukraine war.
To this day, no critical word has been heard from Beijing about the invasion or the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, such as in Bucha.
Just before the war, the presidents of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, had promised each other close cooperation.
The statement from the State Department shows how Annalena Baerbock must balance diplomacy and her goal of a value-based foreign policy.
The wording of the revelations in Xinjiang is sharper than similar statements by its predecessors.
The emphasis on “fundamental norms” is also new.
Nevertheless, Baerbock has to adapt.
Because the last point mentioned by the ministry shows that Germany still needs China: According to Baerbock, we could “only fight the climate crisis effectively together”.
China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases due to its huge population, but it also builds more wind and photovoltaic systems than any other country in the world.
"In order to keep the world on the 1.5-degree path, all countries must set their climate targets more ambitiously," said Baerbock.
Uyghur camp in Xinjiang (China): Beijing foreign ministry spokesman calls Xinjiang reports "century lie"
Initially, there were no transcripts of the conversation from the Chinese side.
On Tuesday, however, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded to the new reports on the situation in Xinjiang, calling them the "latest example of anti-China forces defaming Xinjiang".
He described the existence of camps in the region as a "lie of the century".
Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in person with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in Guangzhou on Monday.
Bachelet will travel to Xinjiang tomorrow, Wednesday, to get an idea of the situation.
However, how much she will see there is uncertain: human rights activists fear that the UN commissioner will "step into a minefield of propaganda laid out by the Chinese Communist Party".
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that Bachelet would "keep a comprehensive exchange with all sectors".
Jürgen Trittin, foreign policy spokesman for the Greens, described Bachelet's visit as important in a statement.
"This is a step towards a long-standing demand by the UN." Trittin also demanded that China should "no longer deny the existence of the camps in Xinjiang, but must dissolve them immediately".
(ck/sh)