China has called a mission by the UN rights chief a chance to "clarify misinformation" ahead of her visit on Tuesday to Xinjiang as Uyghurs warned a public relations stunt may lie in wait.

The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region as part of a years-long crackdown the United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a "genocide".

China vehemently denies the allegations, calling them the "lie of the century".

Bachelet is expected to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a six-day tour.

She met Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of her journey to Xinjiang, who also "expressed the hope that this trip would help enhance understanding and cooperation", according to a readout of the meeting released late Monday.

But Uyghurs, the main victims of an alleged campaign of repression, raised doubts about her presence if her trip is as highly-controlled as expected.

Nursimangul Abdureshid, a Uyghur living in Turkey, said she was "not very hopeful that her trip can bring any change".

"I request them to visit victims like my family members, not the pre-prepared scenes by the Chinese government," she told AFP.

"If the UN team cannot have unlimited access in Xinjiang, I will not accept their so-called reports."

Another Uyghur, Jevlan Shirememet, called on Bachelet to help him contact his mother who he has not seen for four years.

The Turkey-based 31-year-old -- from the province's northern reaches near the border with Kazakhstan -- also said he hoped Bachelet would venture further than her itinerary.

"I don't know why she can't visit these places," he told AFP.

- 'Unfettered access' -

Regional capital Urumqi -- population four million -- houses major government bodies believed to have orchestrated the province-wide campaign China described as a crackdown on religious extremism.

It is home to a sizeable Uyghur community and was the site of deadly ethnic clashes in 2009 as well as two terrorist attacks in 2014.

Meanwhile, Kashgar -- home to 700,000 people -- lies in the Uyghur heartland of southern Xinjiang.

An ancient Silk Road city, it has been a major target of Beijing's crackdown, researchers and activists say, with authorities accused of smothering the cultural hub in a high-tech security blanket while bulldozing Uyghur homes and religious sites.

The outskirts of both cities are pockmarked with what are believed to be detention camps, part of a sprawling network of recently built facilities stretching across the remote province.

Campaigners have voiced concern that Chinese authorities will prevent Bachelet from conducting a thorough probe into alleged rights abuses and instead give her a stage-managed tour with limited access.

The US has said it is "deeply concerned" that she had not secured guarantees on what she will see, adding that she was unlikely to get an "unmanipulated" picture of China's rights situation.

Bachelet also gave assurances on her access to detention centres and rights defenders during a Monday virtual meeting with the heads of dozens of diplomatic missions in China, according to diplomatic sources in Beijing.

Caroline Wilson, the UK's Ambassador to China, was on the call and said she stressed "the importance of unfettered access to Xinjiang and private conversations with its people".

"There is no excuse for preventing UN representatives from completing their investigations," Wilson wrote on Twitter.

Bachelet's office has also said she will meet with civil society organisations, business representatives and academics.

In addition to mass detentions, Chinese authorities have waged a campaign of forced labour, coerced sterilisation and the destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage in Xinjiang, researchers and campaigners say.

Uyghurs overseas have staged rallies in recent weeks pressing Bachelet to visit relatives believed to be detained in Xinjiang.

China's alleged abuses in Xinjiang
Beijing (AFP) May 24, 2022 - China's alleged persecution of its Muslim minorities has surged back up the global agenda as the United Nations' human rights chief prepares to visit its troubled Xinjiang region this week.

The trip by Michelle Bachelet comes as rights groups pile pressure on her office to release a long-postponed report on the situation in Xinjiang.

She is expected to visit Urumqi and Kashgar, two cities in Xinjiang, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Beijing says its prolonged crackdown in the far-western province has stamped out terrorism and reset the economy of one of its poorest regions.

But rights campaigners accuse the ruling Communist Party of widespread abuses.

The United States and lawmakers in other western countries have accused China of committing "genocide" against Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.

Beijing vociferously denies the allegations, calling them the "lie of the century".

- Mass detentions -

Chinese authorities have detained more than one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in a secretive network of detention centres and prisons in Xinjiang, researchers say.

Beijing claims the facilities are vocational training schools that are attended voluntarily.

But former detainees have alleged rape, torture and political indoctrination inside the facilities.

Guards equipped with tear gas, stun guns and spiked clubs keep control in centres ringed with barbed wire and infrared cameras, according to a 2018 review of government documents by AFP.

Further insight has come from a series of government data leaks, notably a 2019 cache known as the "Xinjiang Papers" illuminating the scale of Beijing's internment strategy.

A suspected police database reported by AFP this month detailed the charges of 10,000 imprisoned Uyghurs in southwestern Xinjiang, with many serving years-long sentences for vaguely defined terrorism offences.

Additional papers obtained by Sheffield University scholar David Tobin and seen by AFP show how local officials in the region's northern reaches were marshalled to indiscriminately target Muslims.

One is a study manual issued to rank-and-file personnel in 2016 detailing interrogation techniques and urging them to watch out for "wild" imams, "two-faced" religious adherents and other groups.

- Forced labour -

China also stands accused of forced "labour transfer" programmes using Uyghurs to fuel international supply chains, especially in the textile sector.

Beijing claims the initiatives ease poverty by finding well-paid jobs for rural residents with low incomes.

But research suggests authorities have instead coerced tens of thousands of people into fields and factories under a system linked to the detention camps.

Forced Uyghur labour has seeped into major industries ranging from clothing to cars, smartphones to solar panels, according to a 2020 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a think tank.

They include companies that supply well-known global brands, the researchers say.

Last year, the US passed a law banning the import of goods made with forced labour in Xinjiang.

In April, China said it had ratified two international conventions against forced labour.

- Population controls -

Scholars and rights advocates say hardline birth control measures in Xinjiang since 2017 -- including quotas on sterilisations and IUD insertions -- are part of a deliberate attempt to slash ethnic minority births.

China has rubbished those claims and asserts that falling birth rates reflect regional economic development and changing social norms.

Population growth in some minority-heavy Xinjiang counties plunged between 2017 and 2019, according to research papers citing local government statistics.

The decline took place even as the central government has urged the mostly Han population nationwide to have more children in a bid to stave off a looming demographic crisis.

Population data is notably absent from Xinjiang's more recent provincial yearbooks.

- Cultural destruction -

China has targeted Uyghur religious, cultural and linguistic practices in recent years.

Some 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang -- around two-thirds of the total -- have been destroyed or damaged due to government policies mostly enacted since 2017, according to ASPI.

During a 2019 trip to the region, AFP reporters visited several holy sites that had been razed or repurposed, and found cities blanketed by cameras and police checkpoints.

Uyghurs also allege they have faced state pressure not to speak their own language and to abandon Islamic customs such as praying, owning holy books or growing long beards.

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UN human rights chief begins contentious China visit
Beijing (AFP) May 23, 2022
The UN human rights chief began a six-day trip to China on Monday that will include the remote Xinjiang region, stirring fears over access and the propaganda value the visit offers to the Chinese Communist Party. The tour by Michelle Bachelet marks the first by the UN's top rights official in nearly two decades and comes as Beijing stands accused of widespread abuses of Muslims in far-western Xinjiang. The ruling Communist Party is alleged to have detained over one million Uyghurs and other Musl ... read more