Chair of UN human rights experts calls UN Watch a “champion of antisemitism” but fails to explain his praise of Beijing, omission of China’s victims, or whether Chinese funding supported his report and travel
GENEVA, September 9, 2026 - China today launched an extraordinary attack against UN Watch at the United Nations Human Rights Council, accusing the Geneva-based human rights organization of “fabricating lies” and “maliciously smearing China” after UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer questioned Beijing’s $100,000 contribution to the mandate of a senior UN human rights expert.
The Chinese delegation invoked its right of reply after Neuer challenged George Katrougalos, the UN’s Independent Expert on “the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order,” over a report that repeatedly praises China while ignoring the victims of Beijing’s repression.
Katrougalos also serves as Chair of the Coordination Committee of UN Special Procedures, the body representing and overseeing the UN Human Rights Council’s independent experts, including special rapporteurs.
“Mr. Katrougalos, your report mentions China 33 times,” Neuer told the Council. He cited passages portraying China as a “central actor” defending international order, President Xi Jinping as the “new guardian of global rules for free trade,” and Chinese discourse as “closely aligned with the UN Charter” and “peaceful coexistence.”
“If your report is truly about human rights, then where are China’s victims?” Neuer asked.
He challenged Katrougalos to explain why the report omitted the mass detention, forced labour and religious persecution of Uyghurs; Beijing’s suppression of Tibetan culture, language and religion; imprisoned Hong Kong democracy activists such as Jimmy Lai; jailed lawyers, journalists and dissidents; mass censorship; the surveillance state; and China’s threats against Taiwan.
Neuer also questioned Katrougalos about China’s decision to contribute $100,000 to his UN mandate.
“Why did Beijing choose you? What exactly did its money finance? Did it support this report? Who funded your two trips to China, mentioned on page 2 of your report?” Neuer asked. “Will you acknowledge that such funding creates a conflict? Will you commit today that all China’s money will be returned?”
UN Expert Responds With Personal Attack
Katrougalos did not answer why his report excluded China’s victims, whether Beijing’s money supported the report, who financed his China trips, or whether the Chinese contribution would be returned.
Instead, he launched a lengthy attack against UN Watch, accusing the organization of conducting a “smear campaign” against UN experts and the United Nations as a whole. (UN Watch recently released a 100-page investigation finding that the UNHRC’s experts have abandoned the role of independent monitors and are advancing politicized agendas that erode the credibility of the international human rights system.)
Katrougalos claimed that UN Watch had “misinterpreted or doctored” passages from his report, although he acknowledged that it referred to China 32 times. He defended his favorable account of Chinese-backed “multipolarity” by invoking recent comments by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Though Neuer never mentioned the Middle East in his speech, Katrougalos’ reply accused UN Watch of denying what he called “the genocide in Gaza,” alleged that the organization had orchestrated a “campaign of lies against the United Nations,” and declared that UN Watch had become a “champion of antisemitism.”
Katrougalos insinuated that UN Watch was a “GONGO” (a government-organized NGO) and attacked its funding, without his ever addressing the Chinese government’s documented $100,000 contribution to his own mandate, as documented in the UN’s disclosure on 2025 funding.
“Mr. Katrougalos responded to questions about China’s funding and human rights abuses by attacking the organization that asked them,” said Neuer. “He spoke at length, yet said not one word to reply to our question on why his report, supposedly on human rights, managed to cite China 32 times without ever raising the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Jimmy Lai or China’s other victims.”
“He did not explain whether Beijing’s $100,000 financed his report or his travel to China. Instead, the chair of the UN’s human rights experts called a Jewish-led human rights organization a ‘champion of antisemitism.’ This was not an answer. It was a grotesque inversion, and an attempt at intimidation and diversion.”
Beijing Attacks UN Watch, Says Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong Are “Purely China’s Internal Affairs”
The Chinese government then exercised a right of reply to denounce UN Watch’s intervention.
“This morning, certain NGOs fabricated lies and maliciously smeared China’s economic cooperation with UN Special Procedure mandate holders, which we firmly reject,” the Chinese delegate told the Council.
China defended its cooperation with the UN human rights system, cited its payment of more than 20 percent of the UN budget and contrasted its conduct with that of a “major country” that had withheld its contributions, an apparent reference to the United States.
The Chinese delegate also rejected international scrutiny of abuses in Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, declaring them “purely China’s internal affairs.”
He insisted that China’s treatment of ethnic minorities was characterized by “equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony.”
China did not explain why it selected Katrougalos’s mandate to receive $100,000, what activities the money financed, whether it supported the report, or whether it paid for either of his two visits to China.
“The sequence was revealing,” said Neuer. “We asked a UN expert why his report glorified Beijing, erased its victims and benefited from $100,000 in Chinese funding. The expert called us ‘antisemitic.’ China accused us of ‘fabricating lies.’ Neither answered our questions. The world has a right to know. We are demanding that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provide full disclosure and transparency on how China’s direct funding was used in connection with a supposedly independent report replete with praise of Beijing.”
“China’s intervention only underscores the need for full transparency concerning government funding of supposedly independent UN human rights mandates,” Neuer added. “When an authoritarian regime finances a mandate whose report subsequently praises that state while ignoring its political prisoners and persecuted minorities, the public is entitled to clear answers.”
UN Watch called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Volcker Turk to disclose:
- Every expenditure financed by China’s $100,000 contribution to Katrougalos’ mandate;
- Whether any of the funds supported Katrougalos’s report or related research;
- Who financed Katrougalos’s two visits to China;
- All communications between Chinese officials, the mandate holder and UN staff concerning the contribution; and
- What safeguards were implemented to protect the mandate’s independence and prevent actual or perceived conflicts of interest.
Watch the complete exchange here:
3/ Katrougalos’ response:
❌ Not 1 word on the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Jimmy Lai or China’s other victims.
❌ No answer on China’s $100,000 donation or his trips there.
❌ Instead, a false harangue attacking UN Watch’s independence-and calling us a “champion of antisemitism.”Watch: pic.twitter.com/fDukNaDj12
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 9, 2026
4/ Then 🇨🇳 Beijing's delegate joined in, exercising a Right of Reply:
China accused UN Watch of “fabricating lies” and “maliciously smearing China’s economic cooperation with UN Special Procedure mandate holders, which we firmly reject.”
“China has always constructively… pic.twitter.com/Y9yGpIT1Uy
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 9, 2026
