China envoy reads riot act to U.S. on rights

Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN. (Photo/Foreign Ministry official website)

Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, has told a General Assembly meeting on racism that a U.S. representative has "smeared" China by falsely claiming that there was "genocide" in Xinjiang, an accusation China firmly rejected.

Dai said racism threatens international peace, stability and development and is the common enemy of mankind. China is a staunch supporter of the role the UN plays in combating racism and calls for more effort to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, he said.

The purpose of Friday's meeting was to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, but the U.S. Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, used the platform to disseminate falsehoods and level baseless accusations against China for political reasons, which China unequivocally opposes and categorically rejects, Dai said.

Speaking as someone of African descent on such a day, "the representative of the U.S., in a rare case, admitted her country's ignoble human rights records, but that does not give her country the license to get on a high horse and tell other countries what to do", Dai said.

'Deep-rooted problems'

If the U.S. truly cared about human rights, it should address "the deep-rooted problems of racial discrimination, social injustice and police brutality on its own soil", he said. It should also control the pandemic, save lives and ensure equitable global distribution of vaccines.

He urged the U.S. to "stop interfering in the internal affairs of… other countries and lift unilateral, coercive measures against developing countries".

It should also "stop indiscriminately killing innocent lives" in overseas military operations and "hold the perpetrators accountable", he said.

"And it should do some soul searching, and reflect upon (its) history of colonization and aggression, and on the profound suffering inflicted on the populations of the countries colonized and invaded by them."

Dai said the allegation of "genocide" in Xinjiang referred to in Thomas-Greenfield's statement was "absurd and a complete lie with ulterior motives".

"The U.S. is obsessed with manufacturing lies on the Xinjiang issue, but lies are just lies, and truth shall prevail eventually," he said.

Dai recalled that 64 countries issued a joint statement at the Human Rights Council on March 12 to support China's position on Xinjiang-related matters.

The statement urged countries to stop using the issue to interfere in China's internal affairs, to stop making unfounded accusations against China in the interest of their political agenda, and to stop using human rights as a cover to hold back developing countries in their development, he said.

"Here's my advice to the U.S.: Cast away your ideological prejudices, stop instrumentalizing human rights issues for political purposes, stop provoking political confrontations and disrupting international cooperation on human rights."