US Says China Commits Genocide Against Uyghur Muslims

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has concluded that China has committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” against the Uyghur ethnic group, delivering a strong condemnation in Beijing for a campaign of mass repression that has yet to unleash hard international action.

The determination, which was announced in a statement Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accuses China of imprisoning, torturing and carrying out forced sterilizations against Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group.

“I believe that this genocide is underway and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy the Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state,” Pompeo said. He said the Communist Party authorities “are engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group.”

The genocide designation, which also applies to other minority groups in Xinjiang, does not have automatic legal consequences, but it puts pressure on other nations, and American allies in particular, to consider sanctions and take other steps to condemn Beijing’s policies.

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for the post of Secretary of State, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that it was appropriate that “forcing men, women and children into concentration camps Was genocide. The Biden campaign said in an August statement that the Chinese government’s actions amounted to genocide and added that Mr. Biden “opposes them in the strongest terms.”