Uighurs: For China, The Enactment Of An American Law Is A "Vicious Attack"

Xinjiang Province is regularly the scene of tensions between the Uyghurs and the Hans. AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE LOPEZ

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China castigated Thursday the passing in the United States of a law wanted by the American Congress to sanction Chinese officials accused of "mass internment" of Uyghur Muslims in its region of Xinjiang (northwest).

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This Wednesday, June 17, US President Donald Trump signed a law wanted by the United States Congress to sanction Chinese officials accused of discriminating against Uighur Muslims. The latter "  holds responsible for the perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labor and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uyghurs and other minorities in China,  "said the White House tenant in a statement.

"  Consequences  "

The law is a "  vicious attack on China's Xinjiang policy,  " the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday in a statement, warning Washington of "  consequences  ." The text had been adopted by an overwhelming majority on May 27 by the House of Representatives, after having unanimously passed the Senate milestone a few days earlier.

It risks further aggravating relations already strained to the extreme between the two first world powers, at the same time as the head of American diplomacy Mike Pompeo meets in Hawaii the high Chinese official Yang Jiechi, precisely to defuse these tensions.

Political re-education camps ?

Uighurs are one of the 56 ethnic groups identified in China. Mainly Muslim, speaking for the most part a language related to Turkish, they represent just under half of the 25 million people living in Xinjiang. This immense region of the west borders several countries in Central Asia in particular. Human rights groups accuse China of interning in Xinjiang - long stricken by numerous bloody attacks - up to a million Muslims in what they call political re-education camps.

Beijing denies this figure and speaks of vocational training centers, intended to help the population to find a job and thus to distance them from the temptation of Islamism and terrorism.

( with AFP )

Read also: Internment of Uyghurs: "The documents are final, Beijing lied"

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