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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, surprised everyone on Tuesday with an announcement: She will not seek a second term, the Chilean announced. She is not the first High Commissioner to quit after just one term. But the timing Bachelet chose for her announcement raises questions. Is there a connection to the UN representative’s visit to China, which was strongly criticized internationally?
Marcel Grzanna does not give Bachelet a particularly good performance review before she leaves office: The long-awaited report evaluating China’s human rights violations in Xinjiang is still pending. Thus, critics see themselves vindicated that the former Chilean President was never interested in investigating China in the first place – and rather wanted to avoid potential troubles with an important trading partner of her home country.
In recent years, Volkswagen’s business in the People’s Republic has continued to set new records, but the market is undergoing major changes. When it comes to electromobility and digitalization, software strategy will play a decisive role in determining whether VW and other German carmakers will remain ahead in China in the future. A study showing that Volkswagen could face billions in losses due to delays at its software subsidiary Cariad will leave more than a bitter taste for Wolfsburg. The China offshoot is supposed to help solve the problem of declining sales in the People’s Republic, writes Christian Domke-Seidel. Customer-oriented development – which VW lacked up to now – is also to become decisive.
Amelie Richter
Feature
Bachelet disappointed as High Commissioner
With the end of her term in mind, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights assured the timely publication of a China report. By the end of August, Michelle Bachelet wants to present what many governments around the world have been waiting on for years. The paper is to provide assessments of the Human Rights Council on systematic Chinese crimes against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Other countries could then use this to formulate political consequences for their relations with the People’s Republic.
But during her four years in office, Bachelet has not yet managed to publicly assess the situation in Xinjiang. Now the time is set for August 31 at the latest. That will be her last day as UN High Commissioner. She announced her retirement on Monday. It was time to return to her homeland, the former Chilean president said.
Numerous critics of her work accuse Bachelet of deliberately delaying the publication. Early on, she never had any interest in publishing a report on China, the accusation goes. Among those critics is Emma Reilly, an Irish lawyer who worked for the Human Rights Council in Geneva for nearly a decade before she was fired last fall for publicly urging the council to change course. “Ms. Bachelet has been repeating what the Chinese government says from day one in office. And nothing is further from her mind than publicly criticizing Beijing for its dramatically poor human rights record,” Reilly tells China.Table.
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