United Nations investigators have found evidence of the abuse of Uyghur Muslim people possibly amounting to crimes against humanity. More surprisingly, the UN has published the report, albeit delayed by some spirited resistance by China.
It says a lot that things are so bad in the region that not even the objections of the world’s largest economy could prevent such serious and shameful indictment being levelled against the politburo in Beijing. If it were Myanmar or Zimbabwe, there would have been no question about the UN Human Rights Commission report being released: a superpower with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council is in a far stronger position to defend its interests. For once, the United Nations as an organisation has lived up to the ideals with which it was established almost eight decades ago.
The extent of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the government of China on its own people in Xinjiang Province is as grievous as anyone could have feared. Targeted as they are on one ethnic and religious group, they recall the worst abuses of their kind in human history.
