Two US officials revealed that President Donald Trump's administration is officially considering describing the brutal crackdown by China on the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority in Xinjiang as a "genocide."
This came according to statements made by the two officials to the American newspaper Politico on condition of anonymity.
According to these two officials, if there is not enough consensus on the use of the term genocide, the administration can accuse the Chinese leadership of committing other atrocities such as "crimes against humanity" or "ethnic cleansing."
Activists and lawmakers have been pressing for recent months to classify what Uighur Muslims are subjected to as genocide. Experts say that simply looking at the possibility that the US government will do so could harm the already strained relations between Beijing and Washington.
It also comes in the midst of the 2020 US presidential campaign, where the competition over which candidate will be tougher with China.
A spokesman for the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, indicated that the former vice president supported the designation, a factor that could affect the calculations of incumbent President Donald Trump.
Earlier, Robert O'Brien, the White House National Security Adviser accused communist leaders in China of running "concentration camps" for Uyghurs in Xinjiang, a northwestern province of the country home to millions of Uighurs.
Last March, the US State Department issued its annual human rights report for 2019, in which it indicated that China's detention of Muslims in detention centers aims to erase their religious and ethnic identity.