The United Nations' human rights chief is discussing with China a potential visit to the Xinjiang region, in what could provide rare, close-up foreign scrutiny of accusations of abuses against ethnic Uyghurs.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has long sought access to investigate an issue that has soured relations between Beijing and the West, bringing genocide accusations from Washington and a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.
China has denounced the accusations as an international smear campaign.
Dr Bachelet's office in Geneva confirmed on Friday that conversations were underway for a possible trip to the area in north-west China in the first half of the year.
The South China Morning Post has reported that a visit had been agreed for after the Winter Olympics.
"The parameters of that visit are still very much under discussion," Dr Bachelet's spokesperson, Rupert Colville, told a UN briefing, adding that she would need access to civil society actors and high-level engagement from the government.
China has held some visits for journalists and diplomats in recent years, albeit in tightly-controlled conditions.
Rights groups accuse China of widescale abuses against Uyghurs and other minority groups. The accusations include torture, forced labour and detention of 1 million people in internment camps.
China calls them re-education and training facilities, denies abuses, and says it is combating religious extremism.
Alleged crimes against humanity
Citing unidentified sources, SCMP said approval for Dr Bachelet's visit was granted on condition it be "friendly" and not framed as an investigation, with no ensuing report.
Mr Colville said the proposed trip was separate from a pending UN report on Xinjiang.
"I can assure you [that our team] will be fending off any untoward approaches," he added.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Dr Bachelet had been invited to visit a long time ago for the purpose of exchange and cooperation, and added that China opposed any "political manipulation" of a trip.
With the UN Human Rights Council's five-week session set to start on February 28, activists and diplomats say the window is closing for Dr Bachelet to publish the report.
It is thought to be based, so far, on research and interviews with alleged victims and witnesses inside and outside of both Xinjiang and China.
US lawmakers had wanted it released before the Olympics and activists are frustrated at the delay.
Speaking at an online press conference on Friday that was organised by the rights group Human Rights Watch, activists urged international attendants to voice their opposition to China's hosting of what they called the "genocide games", which begin next week.
"The 2022 Winter Olympics will be remembered as the genocide games," said Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, hit back at the rights group for its continued calls to boycott the Olympics.
"The so-called human rights group is biased against China and keen on making mischief," Mr Wang said.
"Lies and rumours it fabricated are unpopular. Its egregious acts that harm the Olympic cause will never succeed."
Reuters/AP
