China rejects Western calls for human rights reforms

China on Thursday rejected Western-led recommendations for human-rights reforms including calls for greater freedoms in Hong Kong and for Uyghurs in Xinjiang, but accepted others from allies, as it sought to defend its record at a UN meeting.

The UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva caps off a review process in which Beijing has strived to fend off criticism following a 2022 U.N. report which said the detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in China's Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. China denies any abuses.

The council's president, Omar Zniber, said China had accepted nearly 70% of the more than 400 reform recommendations it received as part of the UN review.

"Progress and development on human rights is achieved in China with each passing day," China's ambassador, Chen Xu, told the meeting, alongside a large delegation of Chinese diplomats and officials. 

He said it rejected recommendations that were "politically motivated based on disinformation, ideologically biased or interfering in China's traditional sovereignty" and condemned what he called an attempt to "smear and attack" it.

Yet China's critics say its high acceptance rate is misleading, with one Western diplomat alleging the country had "stacked the deck" by investing political capital in quelling criticism.

Reuters