A tweet from The United Nations thanking China for giving an $800,000 donation to support human rights enraged critics on social media over the weekend, prompting renewed calls to halt U.S. funding to the organization accused of ignoring Chinese human rights abuses.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the self-described "leading U.N. entity on human rights," thanked China on Twitter for donating to support its human rights work last week, before encouraging others to donate to the cause.
"Thank you #China for donating $800K to support our Office's #humanrights work. You can donate too: https://ohchr.org/en/donation, " the tweet read.
Critics were left baffled by the tweet, with many pointing out China's ongoing human rights abuses in its genocide against Uyghur Muslims and others demanding the U.S. stop funding the U.N. system entirely.
"The Chinese Communist Party supporting humans rights is laughable," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted. "The @UNHumanRights should know better. Instead, they turn their eyes away from the barbaric genocide of the Uyghurs in #Xinjiang."
International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted, "The @UNHumanRights thanking #China for supporting their ‘human rights work’. Another reminder the @UN is a complete and utter joke!"
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U.K.-based human-rights group Amnesty International's press account suggested the donation should be put towards "monitoring the human rights situation" in China and investigating "crimes against humanity" taking place in Xinjiang.
Pompeo-era state department advisor Gabriel Noronha said the tweet further emphasizes why the "UN Human Rights Council is a complete joke."
"Imaging thinking this org is of value to Americans," Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs agreed.
"I expect Iran, Saudi Arabia and N Korea will donate soon," Dan Schneider, Vice President at the Media Research Center quipped.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., a member of the newly established House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), called the tweet "pathetic," adding that"If the @UN wants to continue shilling for the #CCP, American tax dollars shouldn’t pay for it."
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the State Department under both the Trump and Biden administrations have assessed China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Since 2017, the Chinese government has reportedly imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. According to leaked documents from inside China, detainees are subjected to rape, torture, forced labor, brainwashing and forced sterilization while being held in concentration camps.
Last August, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a damning report on human rights concerns in Xinjiang. Weeks later, however, the U.N. Human Rights Council narrowly rejected holding a discussion on the issue.
Former President Trump withdrew the United States from the controversial council during his presidency, but President Joe Biden returned the US to the Geneva-based organization in October 2021.
Fox News' Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.
