\n China faced new accusations Tuesday that it was sanctioning abuses of Uyghurs at the \"highest levels\", as a vast document leak came out during a controversial visit by the UN rights chief.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang as part of a years-long crackdown the United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a \"genocide\".\n<\/p>\n
\n China vehemently denies the allegations, calling them the \"lie of the century\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Michelle Bachelet is expected to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a six-day tour.\n<\/p>\n
\n She met Foreign Minister Wang Yi who \"expressed the hope that this trip would help enhance understanding\", according to a readout of the meeting released late Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n In its report of the meeting, state news agency Xinhua said Bachelet \"congratulated China on its important achievements in economic and social development and in promoting the protection of human rights\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Bachelet's spokesperson did not confirm to AFP what was said outside the opening comments.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United States reiterated its view that Bachelet's visit was a mistake after the release of thousands of leaked documents and photographs from inside the system of mass incarceration.\n<\/p>\n
\n Reported by a consortium of media, including the BBC and Le Monde, the Xinjiang Police Files showed top leaders in Beijing including President Xi Jinping calling for a forceful crackdown.\n<\/p>\n
\n The files, leaked by an anonymous source to academic Adrian Zenz, also included a 2017 internal speech by Chen Quanguo, a former Communist Party secretary in Xinjiang, in which he allegedly orders guards to shoot to kill anyone who tries to escape.\n<\/p>\n
\n State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was \"appalled\" by the latest allegations.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It would be very difficult to imagine that a systemic effort to suppress, to detain, to conduct a campaign of genocide and crimes against humanity would not have the blessing -- would not have the approval -- of the highest levels of the PRC government,\" Price told reporters, referring to the People's Republic of China.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Pressure on Bachelet -\n<\/p>\n
\n The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the evidence showed that Bachelet \"must take a hard look at these faces and press Chinese officials for full, unfettered access -- and answers\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Britain and Germany also voiced outrage.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a call to her counterpart, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a \"transparent investigation\" into the \"shocking reports and new evidence of very serious human rights violations in Xinjiang\", said a German foreign ministry statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the report \"the latest example of anti-China forces smearing Xinjiang\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier this month, a leaked police database obtained by AFP listed the names and details of thousands of detained Uyghurs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Uyghurs have raised doubts about Bachelet's presence if the trip is as highly controlled as expected.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nursimangul Abdureshid, a Uyghur living in Turkey, said she was \"not very hopeful that her trip can bring any change\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I request them to visit victims like my family members, not the pre-prepared scenes by the Chinese government,\" she told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Another Uyghur, Jevlan Shirememet, called on Bachelet to help him contact his mother, whom he has not seen for four years.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Turkey-based 31-year-old -- from the province's northern reaches near the border with Kazakhstan -- also said he hoped Bachelet would venture further than her itinerary.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I don't know why she can't visit these places,\" he told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Promises on access -\n<\/p>\n
\n Regional capital Urumqi is home to many of the government agencies believed to be behind the campaign China has described as a crackdown on religious extremism.\n<\/p>\n
\n The city of four million has a sizeable Uyghur community and was the site of deadly ethnic clashes in 2009 as well as two attacks in 2014.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kashgar -- home to 700,000 people -- lies in the Uyghur heartland of southern Xinjiang.\n<\/p>\n
\n An ancient Silk Road city, it has been a major target of Beijing's crackdown, researchers and activists say, with authorities accused of smothering the cultural hub in a high-tech security blanket while bulldozing Uyghur homes and religious sites.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bachelet on Monday gave assurances about her access to detention centres and rights defenders during a virtual meeting with the heads of dozens of diplomatic missions in China, according to diplomatic sources.\n<\/p>\n
\n Caroline Wilson, the UK's ambassador to China, was on the call and tweeted that she stressed \"the importance of unfettered access to Xinjiang and private conversations with its people\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China faced new accusations Tuesday that it was sanctioning abuses of Uyghurs at the \"highest levels\", as a vast document leak came out during a controversial visit by the UN rights chief. The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-92807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n