The German Chancellor Olaf Schultz was urged by the World Conference on the Uighurs to postpone his upcoming trip to China.
During press statements, the conference president said that despite the severe criticism of the United Nations Human Rights Office to the actions of the Chinese leadership against the ethnic Uyghur minority, Schultz decided to “honor Chinese President Xi Jinping, completely ignoring the suffering of millions of people.
He continued by saying that the delegation of businessmen’s visit to Schultz demonstrated that “profit is still put ahead of human rights.”
Tomorrow, China is travelling to China for the first time as part of an official visit, leaving Germany on Thursday with a senior economic delegation. The counsellor will only live in Beijing, the country’s capital, due to the tight Corona laws.
Schultz will thus be the first Western official to visit President Xi Jinping since his re-election as the Communist Party leader. Uighur Muslims have complained of cultural and religious persecution, and tensions between the dominant Chinese and ethnic minorities have long existed in Xinjiang.
Human rights organisations say that hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities have recently been taken to the re-formation camps in Xinjiang, where they are tortured, mistreated, and ideologically brainwashed.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights made serious accusations against the Chinese government in a report during the summer. According to the report, which was published at the end of August last year, “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention against the Uighurs and other Muslim-majority groups could constitute international crimes, especially crimes against humanity.
In his address to the UN General Assembly in New York in September of last year, Schultz urged the Chinese government to follow the recommendations contained in the UN report, saying that doing so would show sovereignty and strength and ensure positive change.
Schultz is urged by the World Conference on Uighurs to postpone his trip to China.
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