China’s Wang Yi urges UN rights envoy to ‘clarify misinformation’

Chinese foreign minister says some anti-China forces use human rights issues to try to suppress the country

The human rights commissioner has moved to manage expectations in video call with Beijing-based diplomats

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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Guangzhou, southern China’ on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:46pm, 24 May 2022Updated: 7:29pm, 24 May 2022

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told UN envoy Michelle Bachelet that Beijing hopes her visit will help “clarify misinformation” about its human rights record.

Wang met the human rights commissioner at the start of her six-day trip and blasted “some countries and anti-China forces” for spreading “false information” and “vilifying China with slanderous attacks”, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua.

“Their purpose is to use human rights issues as excuses to suppress China and to politicise and weaponise the human rights issue,” said Wang, during the meeting on Monday in Guangzhou, southern China.

The meeting with Wang was Bachelet’s first with a Chinese leader during her visit. The human rights commissioner and her delegation will also travel to Xinjiang in China’s northwest and Beijing.

Wang said the UN should promote cooperation instead of confrontation, based on the principle of mutual respect and equal treatment, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

“Multilateral human rights institutions should serve as a major venue for cooperation and dialogue rather than a new battlefield for division and confrontation,” he said.