Published 18:05 IST, September 2nd 2020
China's oppression of Uyghurs amounts to 'genocide', says Biden campaign
Joe Biden campaign has termed the alleged human rights violations and oppression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region as “genocide”.
Joe Biden campaign has termed the alleged human rights violations of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region as “genocide”, saying the Democratic presidential nominee “stands against it in the strongest terms”. Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that Biden stands against the unspeakable oppression suffered by Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities at the hands of China's authoritarian government.
“If the Trump administration does indeed choose to call this out for what it is, as Joe Biden already did, the pressing question is what will Donald Trump do to take action. He must also apologize for condoning this horrifying treatment of Uyghurs," Bates was quoted as saying.
On June 17, US President Donald Trump signed “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020” into law which condemns gross human rights violations of the ethnic Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region in China. It is aimed at holding accountable perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labour, and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uyghurs and other minorities in China.
Trade deal excuse
However, Trump said that trade talks with Beijing were the primary reason for not imposing tougher sanctions on Chinese officials accused of a crackdown on Uyghur Muslims. In an interview with online news portal Axios, Trump said that tougher sanctions would have interfered with negotiations with China as the two countries were in the middle of a “major trade deal”. Both Trump and Biden campaign has been hitting out at each other to project their stance as tougher against China.
Several leaked documents from China have revealed Beijing’s brutal and systematic crackdown on Uyghurs, in which they have called it a “struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism”. After Uyghur militants stabbed more than 150 people at a train station in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a series of speeches delivered to officials, urged the party to follow America’s policy of “war on terror”.
Updated 18:05 IST, September 2nd 2020