The French National Assembly adopted, Thursday, January 20, a few days before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, a resolution denouncing the "genocide" of the Uyghurs by China and asking the French government to do the same. .

The text, without binding scope, defended at the podium by the First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure within the framework of a day reserved for the Socialist group, received the support of the deputies of the presidential party La République en Marche and was adopted at the quasi-unanimity (169 votes for, one against and five abstentions).

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The proposal states that the Assembly "officially recognizes the violence perpetrated by the authorities of the People's Republic of China against the Uyghurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide" and "condemns" them.

It "invites the French government" to do the same and to adopt "the necessary measures with the international community and in its foreign policy with regard to the People's Republic of China" to put an end to this situation.

The fate of the Uyghurs "evoked at the highest level"

On behalf of the government, the Minister for Foreign Trade, Franck Riester, spoke of "systematic violence" and "overwhelming testimonies", but argued that the formal qualification of genocide was the responsibility of international bodies, not the government.

He assured that the fate of this community was "raised at the highest level" during interviews with Chinese officials, and recalled that it had been mentioned the day before in President Emmanuel Macron's speech to the European Parliament.

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Olivier Faure denounced at the podium "the implacable machine which aims at the cultural and biological eradication of a people", and also castigated the large Western companies and brands "which continue to use forced labor" from this Turkish-speaking Muslim community of the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Human rights organizations accuse China of having locked up more than a million Muslims in political re-education camps.

The Uyghurs are particularly targeted after a series of attacks attributed to Islamists and separatists.

Beijing says the camps are actually vocational training centers meant to steer them away from radicalization.

With AFP

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