Xinjiang official slams Pompeo over 'genocide' comments

An official from China's far west Xinjiang region accused former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday of trying to undermine Beijing's relations with President Joe Biden by declaring China's actions against the Uighur ethnic group a "genocide."

Xu Guixiang, a spokesperson for Xinjiang's Communist Party, spoke at a tightly controlled media briefing, the latest in a propaganda blitz aimed at countering Western accusations of rights abuses in the region.

Since 2016, China has swept 1 million or more Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities into prisons and indoctrination camps that the state calls "training centers," according to estimates by researchers and rights groups.

People have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination in addition to forced labor as part of an assimilation campaign, according to former residents and detainees, as well as experts and leaked government documents.

China denies any abuses and says the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement.

The Biden administration is formulating its policies towards China, which many analysts call America's largest geopolitical challenge.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated on his first day in office that he believed genocide was being committed against Xinjiang's ethnic minorities, signaling that Biden plans to continue some of former President Donald Trump's tough stances against Beijing.

Over the course of two hours, Xu and others, including an imam and former center "trainees," took turns denying forced sterilization, forced labor, restrictions on religion and other allegations.

They did not name Biden or Trump and instead trained their ire on Pompeo.

Xu called him hysterical, a rat, and the worst secretary of state in history.

Pompeo said one of the main reasons for the genocide designation was widespread forced birth control among the Uighurs, which The Associated Press documented last year as well as researcher Adrian Zenz.

Another reason he cited was forced labor.

AP reporters found that Uighur workers at O-FILM, an Apple supplier nearly 2,000 miles from Xinjiang in the eastern city of Nanchang, were not allowed to leave their factory compound freely and could only come out out on rare, chaperoned trips.

Yusupjan Yasinjan, introduced as a former O-FILM worker, said he had signed a contract to work there.

He described working conditions as good, with halal meals, ample salaries, and free "hotel-like" accommodations, and added that he could "ask for leave," and that his religious beliefs were respected.

Yasinjan did not respond directly to whether he was allowed to leave the factory compound freely.

Press officers did not allow reporters to ask follow-up questions.

On detention centers, Xinjiang government spokesperson Elijan Anayat repeated government statements that the camps had been closed and all the students had graduated.

However, satellite imagery and interviews with former Xinjiang residents indicate that the region's vast detention apparatus remains in place.