UN Releases Report on Human Rights Violations in China's Xinjiang

The United Nations released a report Wednesday detailing alleged human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang province.

China has committed "serious human rights violations" and its actions "may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity," the report states. It mentions evidence of "a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention" of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, and evidence of "possible forced sterilization" and "credible" allegations of rape and torture. The U.S. and other Western nations have labeled China's abuses of Uighurs as genocide and have taken steps to ban imports from Xinjiang; the U.N. report stopped short of using that language.

The report's release had been delayed several times amid opposition from Chinese authorities. It was published minutes before U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet's tenure ended. Chinese officials said the "so-called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs."

News outlets on both left and right, including the New York Times (Lean Left bias) and the Daily Caller, framed the report's delay as indicative of the U.N.'s reluctance to stand up to China. The Daily Caller article accused Bachelet of trying "to smooth over allegations of grave human rights abuses" in China, and questioned why the report didn't accuse China of genocide when many other world powers have. Most other reports from the left and center were less critical of the U.N.