Spotlight: Chinese diplomat strongly dissatisfied with UN human rights chief's "misleading remarks"

China expressed Tuesday strong dissatisfaction over UN human rights chief's "misleading remarks", calling for viewing China's human rights in a comprehensive and objective manner.

"The high commissioner made irresponsible comments in disregard of facts, which is sending a wrong signal to the outside world," a spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of China to the UN at Geneva said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement, saying that the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, had raised concerns and sought clarifications from the Chinese authorities about the recent arrests of lawyers and "harassment and intimidation" of government critics and NGO workers.

The Chinese diplomat said that those people were all involved in illegal and criminal activities and that the Chinese action has nothing to do with restrictions of the rights and freedom.

China hopes that Hussein as the UN human rights chief could view China's human rights in a comprehensive, objective and rational manner, rather than a biased, subjective and selective way, the spokesperson added.

"Undermining social stability and order in the name of exercising human rights and freedom of expression will not be allowed in any country ruled by law," the Chinese diplomat said.

On cases involving Wang Yu and a number of so-called "lawyers," they were involved in a major criminal gang that plotted and organized dozens of incidents disturbing public security, procuratorial and judicial organs as well as courts, gathering crowds and making disturbances in public venues, which severely disrupted the normal social order and judicial process, the spokesperson said.

Regarding the so-called "labor activists" in Guangdong Province in southeast China, the individuals have used overseas funds to intervene in domestic labor disputes and gravely disturbed public order. Some are also accused of fraud, adultery and embezzlement.

Regarding the case of Lee Bo and other booksellers from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the basic facts of the case should be noted, the spokesperson said.

First of all, according to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, Lee is a Chinese national.

Lee repeatedly clarified that he voluntarily went back to the Chinese mainland to assist in the investigation. Recently, Lee's wife met him in the mainland and confirmed that her husband is in good physical and mental health.

"Lee hopes that the general public will respect his personal choice and privacy and do not hype up attention on the case," the spokesperson said.

Another bookseller Gui Minhai, who killed a girl student by drunk driving and overspeeding in December 2003, was sentenced to years in prison with a two-year suspension by the Ningbo intermediate people's court in August 2004.

In November 2004, Gui illegally crossed the border, and was later listed as wanted by the Jiangdong Branch of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau.

In October 2015, Gui gave himself up to the Chinese police. Gui was also involved in other illegal and criminal activities, and his case is complicated and still under further proceedings, the spokesperson said.

According to him, the other booksellers, all involved in Gui's case, are under compulsory measures and further investigations in accordance with the Criminal Law.

The spokesperson said that the Swedish citizen Peter Dahlin is involved in operating an unregistered organization in China, receiving huge sums of money from overseas organizations and carrying out unlawful activities.

The organization hired and trained others to gather, exaggerate, distort and even fabricate information about China, providing the so-called "China's human rights report" to overseas organizations, the spokesperson said.

According to the Chinese diplomat, Dahlin confessed that all of the "China's human rights reports" were complied via online research and could not reflect reality, and he "cannot guarantee they are true."

According to members of the organization, certain forces instructed Dahlin and some other people in China to gather information for anti-China purposes such as smearing campaigns.

This organization also intentionally aggravated disputes and instigated some people to create mass incidents and confront the government, the spokesperson said. Endi