The United States has called the UN human rights chief’s visit to China “wrong.”

Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has said on Tuesday that the decision by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to go to China was a mistake and that government restrictions on access would undermine the country’s human rights record. .

During the six-day visit, which began on Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will visit the Xinjiang region of western China, where his office said it believed last year that the Muslim-majority Uyghur community had been illegally detained. Treated and forced to work.

The United States has called its treatment “genocide,” but Beijing denies the abuse.

“We do not expect the PRC (People’s Republic) to provide the necessary access to conduct a comprehensive and non – manual assessment of the human rights situation in Xinjiang,” State Department spokeswoman Nate Price told reporters.

“We believe it’s wrong to admit to the circumstances,” Bryce said, adding that Bachelet could not get a complete picture of “atrocities, crimes against humanity and genocide” in the region.

Asked if Chinese President Xi Jinping was to blame for the scandal, Bryce said it was “hard for us to imagine” that the top echelons of the Chinese government were unaware of it.

Bachelet asked for unrestricted access to Xinjiang, but China’s Foreign Ministry said its trip would be carried out through a “closed circuit”, citing ways to isolate people “within the bubble” to prevent the virus from spreading. Govt-19 spread.

(Report by Humera Pamuk, David Brunstrom and Michael Martina)