Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The foreign ministry in Bern said on Thursday that Switzerland called the Chinese ambassador to talk abou...
 |
| Image: Reuters |
"Switzerland is sure that the best way to protect its interests and make sure fundamental rights are respected is to have a critical and constructive conversation with Beijing," the ministry said, confirming what the SDA news agency had said.
The ministry pointed to a report from last week by the UN human rights commissioner that said China's "arbitrary and discriminatory detention" of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may be crimes against humanity.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied the claims and called the U.N. report as "totally wrong and null."
An email asking for a comment from the Chinese embassy was not answered right away.
Neutral Switzerland has walked a diplomatic tightrope with Beijing, playing down the chances that it will join the West in imposing sanctions on China because of its poor human rights record. Instead, Bern is trying to find a "special path" with one of its biggest trade partners.
Last year, Bern announced a new strategy for dealing with China. He didn't say much about specific policy changes, but he did stress how important bilateral ties are. But it was more open than it has been in the past about how it felt about China's human rights record.
Switzerland was one of the first countries in the west to recognise Communist China in 1950. Since 2010, China has been its biggest trading partner in Asia. After the European Union and the United States, China is its third-largest trading partner in the world.
In July 2014, the two countries signed an agreement to allow free trade between them. This year, they also started a joint platform for listing and trading stocks.
