China says “a majority of friendly and developing countries” at the United Nations signed on to a Cuban diplomatic statement branding China’s Uighur genocide a manufactured political crisis, but there is zero documentation supporting that claim, according to a U.N. official.
“Unfortunately, the Cubans never made their list available to us,” U.N. Human Rights Council spokesman Rolando Gómez told the Washington Free Beacon.
The Cuban envoy to the United Nations said in a March 12 statement to the Human Rights Council that international criticism of China’s Xinjiang crackdown on Uighurs was based on “unfounded allegations made out of political motivation.” Cuba claimed to be speaking “on behalf of 64 countries,” a jump from the 45 countries that signed a similar resolution last October. Cuba did not identify, however, what the supporting countries were.
The Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Cuban mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to a request for the signatories list.
The opaque nature of the Cuban statement could be a sign that fewer states are willing to defend China’s human rights on the record, forcing China to adopt increasingly confrontational and coercive measures to tamp down on international criticism. Chinese media have already published incendiary propaganda arguing that America’s history of slavery is far worse than the regime’s treatment of Uighurs. Chinese nationalists are also boycotting popular Western brands, including Nike and H&M, after the companies said they will stop using cotton from Xinjiang.