China’s Xinjiang more than doubled its US exports in 2020, despite Trump’s sanctions and bans

Name: US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang
Uploaded: 2021-01-21T08:00:21.000Z
Duration: 2 min 27 s
Description: US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

Xinjiang’s exports to the US rose by 116 per cent last year, led by strong sales of wind turbines, some chemicals and Christmas decorations

Figures come as new US President Joe Biden plots his course on Xinjiang, but analysts do not expect a dramatic shift from hardline Trump era

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Xinjiang’s exports to the US rose by 116 per cent last year, led by strong sales of wind turbines. Photo: Shutterstock

Finbarr Bermingham

Published: 4:00pm, 21 Jan 2021Updated: 4:43pm, 24 Feb 2021

Xinjiang’s exports to the United States more than doubled last year, despite increasing pressure on US companies to cut ties with the western Chinese region.

Shipments rose by 116 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, analysis of Chinese customs data shows, led by strong sales of wind-powered electric generating sets, which jumped by 3,265 per cent from a year earlier and accounted for almost one quarter of all Xinjiang’s exports to the US.

The news comes as the outgoing Trump administration, in one of its last China-oriented policy moves, declared that the ongoing persecution of Uygur people and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang was genocide.

Antony Blinken, the incoming Secretary of State for the Biden administration, said on Tuesday he agreed with the classification.

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US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

“The forcing of men, women and children into concentration camps; trying to, in effect, re-educate them to be adherents to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide,” Blinken said during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Beijing hit back at the accusations, with Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, issuing a strongly worded rebuke at a press conference on Wednesday.

“Crimes against humanity and genocide are clearly-defined in international law. ‘China committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’ is a completely false allegation and a malicious farce fabricated and hyped up by certain anti-China, anti-communist forces, with Pompeo being a fanatical pioneer,” Hua said, referring to former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo.