Published 10:11 IST, December 18th 2019
Mike Pompeo supports Mesut Ozil against CCP, says 'truth will prevail'
The US Government waded into the Ozil-China controversy with Secretary of State tweeting in support of the footballer and further criticizing the Chinese govt
The Mesut Ozil-China issue is slowly snowballing with the latest remarks come from Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State. On Tuesday, Pompeo tweeted in support of the Arsenal midfielder, saying that the China's Communist Party (CCP) cannot prevent the truth from prevailing inspite of it's efforts to censor and condemn Mesut Ozil and halt the broadcast of Arsenal matches.
United States wades in
On December 13, the former Germany footballer and FIFA World Cup winner posted a message on his social media channels condemning the atrocities commmited by the Chinese government on Uighurs in Xinjiang and how Muslim countries have not done enough to speak up.
In order to avoid an NBA-China kind of fallout, Arsenal immedialtely published a statemenet on Weibo, a Chinese sociual netwrking site, saying that the statement made by the footballer are his personal choice and that the club does not share the view. The North London club further added that the club follows a policy of not commenting on politics.
The statement by Arsenal had little effect and damange had already by done. China's State-run channel, China Central Television (CCTV) decided to not broadcast the high profile match against Manchester City on Sunday evening.
In a press conference, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said that Ozil was a victim of fake news and that he was welcome to visit the region and see for himself. He said, "I want to tell Mr. Özil that Xinjiang enjoys political stability, economic growth, ethnic solidarity and social harmony, and residents there are leading a happy life."
Since then, the club and Ozil have received a lot of criticism with multiple reports stating that his records have been erased from China's internet.
There has been no communication from the player, the club or the Premier League or even the English Football Associaltion (FA) on the issue.
Ozil's social media post read, "East Turkistan, the bleeding wound of the Ummah, resisting against the persecutors trying to separate them from their religion. They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men. The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men. The women are forced to marry Chinese men. But Muslims are silent. They won’t make a noise. They have abandoned them. Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”
China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang aimed at homogenising the Uighur population to reflect China's majority Han culture. Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and people of other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up in the camps in the tightly-controlled region.
Updated 11:41 IST, December 18th 2019