Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (pcoo.gov.ph)
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday denied that the Philippines had signed a letter to the United Nations supporting China’s handling of Muslims and ethnic groups in Xinjiang province.
“It doesn’t say the Philippines signed. Show me where it says that or show me the document,” Locsin tweeted, in reaction to a story by Agence France-Presse that 37 states were backing Beijing on its policy that had led to the mass detention of Muslims and Uighurs.
Twenty-two countries raised the matter before the UN Human Rights Council last week.
The pro-China letter, reported by several news outlets, was said to have been signed by Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, as well as Myanmar, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
China and Saudi Arabia backed the Philippines when the rights council voted narrowly in favor of a resolution, introduced by Iceland, to produce a full report on alleged human rights violations in the war on drugs of the Duterte administration.
On Twitter, Locsin also mocked critics of the Duterte government’s China policy, who have praised Vietnam for standing up against Beijing over the South China Sea dispute.
He tweeted a photo on the front page of the Beijing paper China Daily, which showed Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with the visiting chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly.
He wrote: “Uh oh we’re all alone. What was that again about Vietnam’s boldness and our pussiness?” (PressONE.ph)