The latest assessment by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concludes that implementation of counterterrorism and counter extremism strategies and policies by the Chinese government in Xinjiang had led to “interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.”

The 45 page report was published on Wednesday, following the previous visit by UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to China in May this year.

The report states that arbitrary and discriminatory detentions of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups in Xinjiang “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

In response to the UN report, Abdul Mu’ti, Secretary General of the second largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah, said that the Chinese government should be more open to the international community on what it had been doing in Xinjiang.

“The latest OHCHR report must be responded to seriously to improve [China’s] policy toward the Uyghur ethnic group and the people of Xinjiang,” Mu’ti said on Thursday.

He went on to say that the Indonesian government should voice to the Chinese government the importance of fulfilling human rights, ensuring fair treatments, as well as stopping all kinds of human rights violations against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

“Indonesia can even bring this matter to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) so the problem of human rights in Xinjiang can be given serious attention,” Mu’ti added.

Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, has yet to issue a statement regarding the UN human rights report.

Public push

Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, international relations assistant professor at the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) in Yogyakarta, said that the UN report might not significantly affect China’s relationship with Muslim majority countries like Indonesia, especially in terms of trade and investments.

“The way I see it, the UN report might not directly affect China’s relationship with Indonesia. However, there will be pressure from the public, social movements and religious groups that want to push Indonesia to raise the issue [of human rights violations in Xinjiang],” Zulfikar said on Friday.

He explained that the Indonesian public perception of China had been declining according to a 2021 poll from the Lowy Institute, which found that about 42 percent of Indonesians trusted China to act responsibly. 

The rate reflects a decrease of 18 points compared to 2011 when about 49 percent respondents said China posed a threat to Indonesia over the next ten years compared to 39 percent in 2011, according to the poll of 3,000 Indonesians aged 17 to 65 across 33 provinces.

Zulfikar urged the Indonesian government to speak up about the UN human rights report, especially as the largest Muslim majority country with the current considerable geopolitical clout it has while holding the Group of Twenty (G20) presidency this year.

“As one of China’s biggest trade partners in ASEAN, the Xinjiang issue should become a point of discussion when bargaining with China,” he said.

China's response

The Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland issued a note verbale dated August 31 slamming the UN report.

The note verbale also attached a 122 page report titled “The Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Facts” in rebuttals to the UN human rights report.

In the statement, China said that it opposed the release of the report as it ran counter to the mandate of OHCHR and that it “ignores the human rights achievements made together by people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and devastating damage caused by terrorism and extremism.” In a press statement on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the report was “orchestrated and produced” by the United States and Western forces while calling it “completely illegal, null and void.”

Separately, another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Friday that the OHCHR as part of the UN secretariat should have defended the sovereignty of UN member states and refrained from interfering with internal affairs.

For its part, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry General Director for Asia Pacific and African Affairs Abdul Kadir Jaelani said on Thursday that the ministry had just been made aware of the UN latest report on Xinjiang and was currently studying it.