China has possibly committed “genocide” in its treatment of Uighurs and other minority Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang, a bipartisan commission of the U.S. Congress said in a report released o Thursday.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said new evidence had emerged in the past year that “crimes against humanity – and possibly genocide – are occurring.” The CECC also accused China of harassing Uighurs in the United States.
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China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills and which others have called concentration camps.
The United Nations says at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang. Faith leaders, activist groups and others have said crimes against humanity, including genocide, are taking place there. Beijing denies abuse accusations.
CECC co-chair, Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, called China’s actions to crush human rights in the past year “shocking and unprecedented” and urged Congress and the incoming Biden administration to hold Beijing accountable.
Meanwhile, The UK has imposed sanctions on Chinese businesses in retaliation to the country’s “horrific” and “harrowing” treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the province of Xinjiang.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab announced on Tuesday that the government would launch a review into which UK products can be exported to Xinjiang and introduce financial penalties for Chinese firms that do not comply with the Modern Slavery Act.
The sanctions will also see UK public bodies exclude businesses complicit in human rights violations from their supply chains.
Raab told MPs that the evidence for these actions against Uyghur Muslims was overwhelming and that the UK had “a moral duty to respond”.
The new sanctions are the latest escalation in growing tensions between the UK and China.
The UK earlier this year sanctioned Hong Kong for new draconian national security legislation imposed by Beijing on the region. (CITYAM, Reuters)
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