Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Firing on all cylinders against the People’s Republic of China (PRC), America has said Beijing has possibly committed “genocide” in its treatment of Uyghurs and other minority Muslims in its restive western province of Xinjiang.
A bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), set up by the U.S. Congress, said new evidence had emerged in the past year that “crimes against humanity – and possibly genocide – are occurring” in Xinjiang. It also accused China of harassing Uyghurs even in the US.
China has been globally condemned for setting up protected complexes in Xinjiang it claims as “vocational training centers” in an attempt to eradicate extremism and give people new skills. Others have condemned these centers as ‘concentration camps’.
The United Nations had disclosed recently that at least one million Uyghurs and other Muslims were detained in Xinjiang. Many clerics, activists, and others have described these as crimes against humanity, including genocide, according to media reports.
But Beijing denied these accusations. Its Washington-based embassy said the CECC was “obsessed with making up all sorts of lies to vilify China.” “The so-called ‘genocide’ is a rumor deliberately started by some anti-China forces and a farce to discredit China,” an embassy spokesperson said.
CECC co-chair, Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, called China’s actions to crush human rights in the past year “shocking and unprecedented” and urged Congress and the incoming Biden administration to hold Beijing accountable.
“The United States must continue to stand with the people of China in their struggle and lead the world in a united and coordinated response to the human rights abuses of the Chinese government,” he said.
In 2020, Sino-American relations have plummeted to their lowest level in decades with disagreements on issues including human rights, the coronavirus pandemic, trade, and espionage.
Campaign of President-elect Joe Biden had already declared, before the November election, that genocide was occurring in Xinjiang.
Under international law, crimes against humanity are defined as widespread and systematic, whereas the burden of proof for genocide – the intent to destroy part of a population – can be more difficult to prove.
A U.S. genocide declaration would mean countries would have to think hard about allowing companies to do business with Xinjiang, a leading global supplier of cotton. It would also raise pressure for further U.S. sanctions.
On Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the United States was imposing a region-wide ban on all cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang over allegations that they are made with forced labor by detained Uighurs, media reported.