Published 16:05 IST, January 20th 2021
'Systematic attempt to destroy': Pompeo declares China's treatment of Uighurs 'genocide'
In his final shot against China, outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo likened Beijing’s crackdown on Uyghurs and minorities as ‘Genocide’.
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In his final shot against China, outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo likened Beijing’s crackdown on Uyghurs and minorities as ‘Genocide’. The top American diplomat has been a staunch critic of the Communist nation and had many times voiced his opposition to its “oppressive” policies including that against Hong Kong. Earlier this month, the US banned all cotton and tomato imports from disputed Xinjiang region, which reportedly houses over 11 million Uyghurs.
Calling attention to the “ongoing genocide”, Pompeo said the world was currently witnessing a systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state. Lambasting the People’s Republic of China further, he said that country’s leaders had made it clear that they were engaged in forced assimilation and “eventual erasure” of the vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group.
“We have paid particular attention to the CCP’s treatment of the Uyghur people, a Muslim minority group that resides largely in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Western China. While the CCP has always exhibited a profound hostility to all people of faith, we have watched with growing alarmed the Party’s increasingly repressive treatment of the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups,” Pompeo added in a statement.
However, he said that the country would not remain silent. "If the Chinese Communist Party is allowed to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against its own people, imagine what it will be emboldened to do to the free world, in the not-so-distant future," he said.
What is happening in Xinjiang?
Last month, the European Parliament observed that Chinese authorities were deliberately sending Uigur woman of childbearing age into forced abortions, intrauterine injections and sterilisation. However, China has consistently denied allegations of forced labour and other claims of human rights abuses in the area, which is home to about 11 million Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority that speak a language closely related to Turkish and have their own distinct culture. The US State Department estimates that since 2017, up to two million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities could have passed through the camp system, which China calls vocational training centres designed to fight extremism.
16:05 IST, January 20th 2021