China has dismissed the United States’ declaration that it is committing genocide against Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities as “outrageous lies” and “poison”.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Wednesday (local time) blamed the declaration of genocide on outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accusing him of fabricating “sensational false propositions” throughout his term in office.
Mr Pompeo said on Tuesday China’s sweeping incarceration of mostly Muslim minorities in the far western Xinjiang region amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.
“We are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state,” Mr Pompeo said, in final broadsides at Beijing after a combative near three-year tenure as America’s top diplomat.
Hua on Wednesday said genocide had “never happened in the past, is not happening now and will never happen in China”.
Rights groups believe that at least one million Uighurs and other mostly Turkic-speaking Muslims are incarcerated in camps in the western region of Xinjiang.
Witnesses and activists say that China is seeking to forcibly integrate the Uighurs into the majority Han culture by eradicating Islamic customs, including by forcing Muslims to eat pork and drink alcohol – both forbidden by their faith.
China denies wrongdoing and contends that its camps are vocational training centres meant to reduce the allure of Islamic extremism in the wake of attacks.
Independent access to the sensitive area is highly restricted.
Unlike many decisions by Mr Pompeo seen as boxing in President-elect Joe Biden, the genocide declaration could be welcomed by the new administration.
Mr Biden himself had accused outgoing president Donald Trump of not doing enough on human rights in China, with his campaign in August using the term genocide when describing the “unspeakable oppression” of the Uighurs and other minorities.
Mr Pompeo’s declaration means that the Biden administration could stand by the genocide declaration while potentially finding areas of cooperation with China without facing Beijing’s anger for issuing the statement.
Janet Yellen, Mr Biden’s nominee to be treasury secretary, in her confirmation hearing Tuesday vowed to use the “full array of tools” against China of trade and other purported abuses.
Culimination of pressure
The Trump administration has already taken a number of steps to pressure China over its treatment of the Uighurs, including blocking all imports of cotton from Xinjiang – one of the major global producers of yarn used in textile manufacturing.
Successive US administrations have been cautious about using the term genocide, mindful of legal implications at home and abroad.
George W. Bush’s administration described Sudan’s scorched-earth campaign in Darfur as genocide, while Barack Obama’s administration said likewise about the Islamic State extremist group’s mass killings, rape and enslavement of Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities.
Politicians across the political spectrum have called on the United States to declare that China is carrying out genocide against the Uighurs, saying that evidence was increasingly clear.
Representative Michael Waltz, a Republican, praised Mr Pompeo’s declaration as acknowledging reality and said it “serves notice to the rest of the world in how they should deal with the Chinese Communist Party”.
In a study last year, German researcher Adrian Zenz found that China has forcibly sterilised large numbers of Uighur women and pressured them to abort pregnancies that exceed birth quotas. China denied the account, saying that Uighur women were breaking free from “extremism” by using contraception.
Mr Pompeo in his statement called on China to “abolish its system of internment, detention camps, house arrest and forced labor” and “cease coercive population control measures, including forced sterilisations, forced abortion, forced birth control, and the removal of children from their families”.
He also urged China to “end all torture and abuse” in custody and allow Uighurs and other minorities to emigrate.
