BEIJING –
The Canadian Embassy in Beijing said censors removed its posts about a United Nations report on human rights in Xinjiang from two Chinese social media platforms.
The embassy tweeted that it was sharing Canada’s response to this week’s report on Weibo and WeChat, but the posts have been deleted.
The report released on Wednesday said China’s treatment of Muslim minorities in the western province of Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity.
The Canadian Embassy shared screenshots of what appeared to be Chinese language posts on its Weibo and WeChat accounts.
These are word-for-word translations of Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s English response to the report, saying its findings reflect “credible accounts of serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang.”
The UN report says “urgent attention” is needed from the international community to address the human rights situation in the province.
It says there are credible reports of torture, arbitrary detention and other ill-treatment in Xinjiang, carried out under the guise of China’s fight against terrorism and extremism.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights “illegal, null and void”, saying it was orchestrated by the United States to contain China.
Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular Mandarin press briefing that the report was “a patchwork of misinformation”.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on September 2, 2022.