BREAKING: China was Chair of the U.N. Human Rights Council vetting process that picked Amnesty International's former chief Irene Khan to be the next world monitor on free speech—to be ratified this afternoon—and it turns out she's weirdly close with China's government.

Only in the Orwellian world of the UNHRC would a totalitarian regime that silences, jails & crushes dissenting voices, and runs the Great Firewall of China to block Internet from its people, be allowed to choose the next UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.

After she was paid $700,000 to leave Amnesty in 2009, @IreneKhan became head of the International Development Law Organization. #China is one of only 8 state donors to the agency — which repays the favor with this China fan page starring Khan: http://idlo.int/fr/news/highlights/idlo-contributes-forum-belt-and-road-legal-cooperation

Moreover...

In a 2018 speech in Beijing, Khan hailed China’s Belt and Road Initiative, for its “potential to improve the lives of billions of people,” “anchored in the purposes of the United Nations,” able to “contribute to strengthening international rule of law.” https://www.idlo.int/news/policy-statements/forum-belt-and-road-legal-cooperation

In her Beijing speech, Khan didn't mention how the $1 trillion-dollar scheme is seen as a major factor fueling Beijing’s persecution of the Uighurs, who live in a region at the heart of the BRI central Asian network. Nor did she raise any human rights concerns at all about China.

Khan appears to have visited China often. In 2016, at Tsinghua University, she “spoke highly of China’s contribution to the global sustainable development.”

http://www.tjhtpm.com/english/news/26efe489597274c4015ab0e751f1008a.html

In 2017, Irene Khan was again back in #China, inaugurating an institute, attending a Belt and Road Initiative forum... http://sppm.tsinghua.edu.cn/english/homeImage/26efe4895b937343015c2dca728b0050.html

...and signing agreements.
http://idlo.int/news/highlights/one-belt-one-road-china-and-idlo-strengthen-cooperation

For a human rights activist, it's weird that Irene Khan's Twitter account only has PRAISE for China. This is a regime that commits horrific and widespread violations of human rights affecting many hundreds of millions of people.
#STOPUigurMuslimGenocide

https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Airenekhan%20china&src=recent_search_click&f=live