The Trump administration believes that China is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Tuesday (January 19).
"After careful examination of the documents at my disposal, I am convinced that China is guilty of genocide against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang," Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
"I have every reason to believe that this genocide is still ongoing and that we are witnessing a systematic attempt to destroy the Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state," added the head of US diplomacy.
Biden administration shares these accusations
President-elect Biden had estimated before his election, according to a statement from his campaign team published in August, that the crackdown against this Muslim minority constituted "genocide perpetrated by the authoritarian government of China".
Its future Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed, Tuesday, to share the accusation of "genocide".
"The United States calls on the People's Republic of China to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained and to end its system of internment and detention camps, supervised residences and forced labor," said Mike Pompeo.
According to foreign experts, more than a million Uyghurs are in detention in political re-education camps.
Beijing denies and claims that these are vocational training centers intended to distance them from terrorism and separatism after attacks attributed to Uyghurs.
China denounces "blatant interference" in internal affairs
This statement will certainly still weigh on the relations of the world's two largest economies, which deteriorated significantly during Donald Trump's tenure.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it was "just a lie" aimed at "discrediting" China.
In a statement, she also denounced a "flagrant interference in the internal affairs of China".
Mike Pompeo's announcement follows intense debate in the US Congress, which passed a law in December asking the administration to determine whether forced labor and other proven crimes against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities could be considered crimes against humanity or genocide.
The US decision will not automatically come with sanctions against China, but it does mean that other countries will have to think about it before allowing their companies to trade with Xinjiang, a major supplier of cotton on a global scale.
With AFP and Reuters
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