The United Nations says it is holding “serious negotiations” with China for unfettered access to the Xinjiang region to verify reports that ethnic Uyghurs are being persecuted, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told CBC on Sunday. A visit by the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was delayed last month. Bachelet said that reports of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, sexual violence, and forced labor in Xinjiang necessitated an “independent and comprehensive assessment” free from oversight by China’s ruling communist party. Bachelet’s visit “is being negotiated at the present moment between the office of the High Commissioner and the Chinese authorities,” Guterres said in an interview aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp’s Rosemary Barton Live show. “And I hope that they will reach an agreement soon and that the human rights commissioner will be able to visit China without restrictions or limitations,” he added. The Chinese Communist Party’s sensitivity to …