China subverting UN efforts to protect human rights, says pressure group

A human rights group said in a report on Tuesday that China has tried to intimidate, blacklist and suppress the voices of rights advocates who operate within the UN system, calling on Beijing to stop such pressure and urging UN agencies to resist.

In the Human Rights Watch report, the group’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, said China’s influence and crackdown on civil society at home “make it a model of bad faith that challenges the integrity of the UN rights system”.

The New York-based group said the report was based on interviews with 55 people including UN officials, diplomats and civil society representatives, conducted between May 2016 and March. China holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and has growing economic and political clout.

China did not immediately comment on the report.

The report said that some UN officials have pushed back at “improper Chinese pressure” at times, while they “have capitulated” at others. It points to detention, travel restrictions and reprisals faced by Chinese activists, as well as efforts to hinder supporters of the Dalai Lama when he travels even within the vicinity of UN venues. It also cited efforts to minimise possible opposition to Chinese leaders.

In one instance, the group said, UN officials sent home many of the 3,000 staff members at the UN Geneva campus during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Switzerland in January and barred NGOs from attending his speech there.