As I See It | China’s call for foreigners to ‘take a look’ and learn the truth should include Xinjiang and Tibet
- Officials are fond of inviting ‘fair-minded’ foreigners to ‘walk around’ China and ‘take a look’ before doubting the country’s human rights record
- Which is all well and good. But the invitation rings hollow when the regions where violations are said to have occurred are virtually off limits
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said this week that no country has the authority to “lecture and finger-point” on the human rights situation elsewhere.
Speaking at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Qin said there is no one-size-fits-all model for protecting human rights and made it clear that all countries have the right to choose their own development path.
He accused foreign forces with a “hidden agenda” of “hyping up issues” related to Xinjiang and Tibet to “smear China and suppress its development” – adding that Beijing welcomes “all fair-minded people from across the world to China to visit more places and see more things, to learn what is truly happening on the ground”.
But surely this means that China has to make its difficult-to-access regions more accessible to these “fair-minded people” who want to make up their own minds?
In a slight departure from the English version of Qin’s speech, the Chinese text was more colloquial, inviting people “harbouring no prejudice” to “walk around and take a look (zou yi zou, kan yi kan) in China” and “understand the truth with their own eyes”.
