Xinjiang in focus as UN rights chief arrives for China visit

BEIJING (AP) — Allegations of human rights abuses in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region will dominate a visit by the United Nations’ top rights official that began Monday. Michelle Bachelet’s visit is the first to China by a U.N. high commissioner for human rights since 2005. Rights groups warn it threatens to whitewash abuses by the ruling Communist Party in Xinjiang. China has locked up an estimated million or more members of minority groups in what critics describe as a campaign to obliterate their cultural identities. China says it has nothing to hide. Bachelet arrived in Guangzhou and will be traveling to Kashgar and the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi. It’s not clear if she will be able to meet the leaders of the crackdown or people who were imprisoned.