China demands UN member states to skip event on Uyghur genocide

China’s United Nations mission has urged other UN member states not to attend an event that will discuss Beijing’s atrocities against Uyghurs during next week’s U.N. General Assembly debate, the National Review reported.

“China’s efforts to intimidate participation from the UN missions not to attend a high-level Uyghur event organized by the Atlantic Council, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International are to silence the voices of top experts from foremost human rights organizations who bear witness to China’s relentless atrocities,” Rayhan Asat posts on X.

The note, issued to all the UN member states on Monday, said the Chinese mission “has the honor to express our resolute opposition to this event and strongly recommend your mission NOT to participate in this anti-China event.”

It is unlikely that Western democracies will skip Tuesday’s event. Some developing nations, however, may be under Beijing’s pressure not to attend the event.

Considering that Uyghurs are facing genocide in their Chinese-occupied homeland, East Turkistan (which China renamed “Xinjiang” meaning “New Frontier”), it is pivotal for the UN’s highest body to condemn the atrocities committed against the Uyghurs. Beijing, on the contrary, claims that any accusations of genocide are mere Western slander.