China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has told the UN's top human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, he hopes her visit will "clarify misinformation" on China's human rights record.
Mr Wang and Ms Bachelet met in the southern city of Guangzhou on Monday as she started a trip that is the first to China by a UN high commissioner for human rights since 2005.
Her six-day, fact-finding visit is focused on allegations of abuses against Muslim minorities in the north-western region of Xinjiang, but rights groups fear her visit will help whitewash the abuses.
China is accused of locking up an estimated million or more members of Uyghur, Kazakh and other Muslim minorities in what critics describe as a campaign to obliterate their distinct cultural identities.
China says it has nothing to hide and welcomes all those without political bias to visit Xinjiang and view what it describes as a successful campaign to fight terrorism and restore order and ethnic cohesion.
During the meeting, Mr Wang expressed "the hope that this trip would help enhance understanding and cooperation, and clarify misinformation", according to the China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From Guangzhou, Ms Bachelet will travel to Kashgar, once a stop on the Silk Road, and Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital.
The UN and China has barred foreign media from accompanying Ms Bachelet, and it is unclear who she will meet and how much access she will be granted throughout her visit.
The UN quoted Ms Bachelet as telling Mr Wang that she was looking forward to exchanges with "many different people during my visit, particularly with government officials, business leaders, academics, students and members of the civil society working on human rights and other social and economic issues".
"While we will be discussing sensitive and important issues, I hope this will help us to build confidence and enable us to work together in advancing human rights in China and globally," Ms Bachelet was quoted as saying.
"Wang noted that to advance the international cause of human rights, we must first, respect each other and refrain from politicising human rights," the Foreign Ministry said in a news release posted on its website.
"Multilateral human rights institutions should serve as a major venue for cooperation and dialogue rather than a new battlefield for division and confrontation," the ministry said.
Rights groups worry that if Ms Bachelet does not press China hard enough, her post-trip report may not give a full picture and could be used by Beijing to justify its actions in Xinjiang.
The World Uyghur Congress urged Ms Bachelet in a letter to ensure that her team could move freely, access all detention facilities and have unsupervised contact with Uyghurs.
"We are concerned the trip might do more harm than good. China could use it for propaganda purposes," spokesperson Zumretay Arkin said.
China's ruling Communist Party allows no political opposition and strictly limits free speech, along with rights to assembly and religious expression.
China is also one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council and has signed but not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights administered by Ms Bachelet's office.
Beijing has also come under criticism over its refusal to criticise Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as its hardline "zero-COVID" approach to the pandemic that has disrupted the lives of tens of millions of citizens and up-ended global supply chains.
ABC/wires
