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Cruz, Rubio, 5 Other GOP Senators Blast U.N. Appointing China To Council Overseeing Human Rights Investigators

   DailyWire.com
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) attend the Medal of Honor ceremony for U.S. Army Master Sgt. Matthew Williams of Boerne, Texas, in the East Room of the White House October 30, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Monday, seven GOP senators sent a blistering letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres opposing the appointment of the Minister of the Chinese Mission in Geneva to the U.N. Human Rights Council Consultative Group.

Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz from Texas, Macro Rubio from Florida, James Inhofe from Oklahoma, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, and Martha McSally from Arizona fired off a missive stating, “The Chinese government’s decision to deceive the international community about the grave dangers of the initial 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, violates any credibility on human rights and should disqualify them from a position on the Human Rights Council Consultative Group.”

They continued, “Through intimidation of its medical first responders, censorship of online forums, and threats of severe punishment for anyone who dared to speak out with the truth, the Chinese Communist Party engaged in its most egregious human rights abuse: the unchecked spread of a new and dangerous virus on an unwitting global population.” They concluded, “all member states to condemn in strongest terms the human rights violations committed by Chinese Communist Party.”

The issue was brought to the fore by Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, which monitors the U.N. Human Rights Council and has championed the rights of victims in China, who stated, “Allowing China’s oppressive and inhumane regime to choose the world investigators on freedom of speech, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief. It’s absurd and immoral for the UN to allow China’s oppressive government a key role in selecting officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide.”

The full text of the senators’ letter is below:

We write to express our profound disappointment and opposition to the appointment of Jiang Duan, Minister of the Chinese Mission in Geneva, to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council Consultative Group. As you know, in this position, Jiang will provide China with the opportunity to play a central role in picking at least 17 human rights investigators, including those who look at freedom of speech, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention, rights abuses which the Chinese regime routinely perpetrates.

The Chinese government’s decision to deceive the international community about the grave dangers of the initial 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, violates any credibility on human rights and should disqualify them from a position on the Human Rights Council Consultative Group. Through intimidation of its medical first responders, censorship of online forums, and threats of severe punishment for anyone who dared to speak out with the truth, the Chinese Communist Party engaged in its most egregious human rights abuse: the unchecked spread of a new and dangerous virus on an unwitting global population. Chinese government actions in the early days of the outbreak are not commensurate to influencing a council responsible for upholding human rights throughout the world. Even now, China withholds critical information about the spread and death toll of the virus and continues to silence and intimidate its critics.

In addition to its willful deceit and gross negligence regarding its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, China is guilty of widespread and well-documented cases of human rights abuses targeting the Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang province. Over one million Chinese Uyghurs sit in so-called re-education camps against their will, in what can only be described as ethnic cleansing on an industrial scale and millions more are treated as second-class citizens in their own country at the hands of the regime in Beijing. It is tragic such terrible crimes against humanity can be committed by a power wanting to be seen as a responsible international actor, and even more egregious such behavior can be rewarded.

The UN was created following the most devastating conflict humanity had ever endured and to safeguard against repeating the most aw l crimes ever perpetrated. We must expect more om its leadership and from its member states. China should not occupy a position of prestige or influence on the UN Human Rights Council while it engages in human rights violations of the worst kind both at home and abroad. We implore you to intervene on behalf of our shared values of freedom and dignity by suspending Jiang’s appointment to the Human Rights Council Consultative Group, and to implore all member states to condemn in strongest terms the human rights violations committed by Chinese Communist Party.

 

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