USA declares that China committed genocide
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https://www.vox.com/2021/1/19/22238962/china-genocide-uighur-muslims-xinjiang-biden-pompeo
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has officially declared China’s treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang a “genocide” constituting crimes against humanity, making the United States the first country in the world to do so.
The statement, issued on President Trump’s last full day in office, blasts Beijing for atrocities committed by the government against roughly 2 million Uighurs in China’s northwest since 2017, including arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and forced labor.
With this designation, the US may now place new sanctions on China and shift its longstanding policy toward the country to a more confrontational approach.
Indeed, it’s hard to carry on relations as normal after one nation accuses another of genocide. US-China relations in the near future will be rocky at best, and downright hostile at worst.
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It gives Biden a lot of flexibility, not sure this makes much policy difference.
More interested on where the world lands on China’s accountability for Covid. I still don’t know where it originated and what China could of and should have done to mitigate. Wonder if there will ever be consensus.
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There is no question that China is targeting these groups because of their Muslim religious beliefs and subjecting them to a Gulag like system of reeducation and forced labour. At the same time though, it is not about ethnicity. It is rather about concentrated religious beliefs among ethnic minorities leading to anti-state activities in the Xinjiang region. What is it? Is it ethnic cleansing? Not really. Is it forced assimilation? Arguably, yes. Is that a crime against humanity? Possibly.
Is it genocide? I doubt it.
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President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law a bill banning goods from China’s Xinjiang region unless companies can prove they aren’t made with forced labor, in a move that will add to tensions over Beijing’s treatment of the nation’s Uyghur minority.
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The bill passed with unanimous backing in both the House and Senate earlier this month, showcasing how Republicans and Democrats are largely aligned on China policy despite Washington’s deep partisan divisions on most major issues.
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