Nicholas Burns, US President Joe Biden's nominee for US ambassador to China, said China's "genocide in Xinjiang," its abuses in Tibet and its harassment of Taiwan must stop.
Human rights advocates have described China's treatment of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region as "genocide", a description China rejects.
At a Senate hearing, Burns, 65, a veteran diplomat and former US ambassador to NATO, said Washington was right to stick to the "one China" policy on Taiwan, but it was also right to oppose Beijing's actions. that undermine the status quo.