China’s treatment of Uygurs meets criteria of United Nations’ Genocide Convention, says think tank report
- The report is a legal analysis of the applicability of the Genocide Convention to Chinese authorities’ actions against the Uygur people
- The analysis draws on public and leaked government statements, individual testimonies and public satellite imagery
Published on Tuesday by Washington-based think tank Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, the report marked the first independent legal analysis of the applicability of the Genocide Convention to Chinese authorities’ actions against the Uygur people.
“China’s policies and practices targeting Uygurs in the region must be viewed in their totality, which amounts to an intent to destroy the Uygurs as a group, in whole or in part,” researchers wrote.
The analysis drew on public and leaked government statements, individual testimonies, public satellite imagery and other information to reach its conclusions.
01:09
China denounces Canadian lawmakers for passing motion declaring genocide in Xinjiang
Among the evidence cited to accuse intent were remarks made openly by government officials about Uygurs, including calls by a religious affairs official to “break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins”.
“The intent to destroy the Uygurs as a group is derived from objective proof, consisting of comprehensive state policy and practice, which President Xi Jinping, the highest authority in China, set in motion,” the researchers wrote, citing Xi’s launch of the “people’s war on terror” in Xinjiang in 2014.
Violation of any one of the Genocide Convention’s five clauses is sufficient to constitute a determination of genocide. Researchers said that all five conditions, which include killing or harming the members of a group, had been met, and placed culpability for the violations at the hands of Chinese government entities.
‘Uncomfortable signal to China’: Japan raises Hong Kong in call to India
The Genocide Convention’s article on genocide also includes: deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment, but Chinese officials have previously adamantly denied charges of genocide, forced labour and mistreatment of Uygurs in the Xinjiang region.
Beyond a host of international law experts, the individuals who contributed to Tuesday’s report included Allan Rock, the former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations (UN); Beth Van Schaack and David Scheffer, two former US State Department officials responsible for war crimes issues; and Yves Fortier, a previous president of the UN Security Council.
01:11
China’s top diplomat denies Xinjiang ‘genocide’ claims and defends Hong Kong national security law
The findings join declarations by foreign legislatures, including those of Canada and the Netherlands, that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang. The Joe Biden administration has upheld a similar determination made in January by Donald Trump’s State Department.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US has “seen nothing that would change our assessment”.
Yet while Tuesday’s findings join a growing chorus of accusations, they are in themselves unlikely to prompt substantive action within the United Nations. While genocide cases can be brought through the body’s international court tribunal mechanism, doing so would need the approval of the UN Security Council, of which China is a member.
The UN office of genocide prevention and UN Secretary-General António Guterres did not respond to requests for comment.
China endorses legal action against German scholar over Xinjiang abuse claims
An otherwise divided US Congress continues to be unified around the call for a stronger response to China’s human rights record.
Responding to Tuesday’s report, Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott said it was time “for every freedom-loving nation in the world to recognise and condemn these atrocities”, and called for a meeting with the Biden White House to lodge complaints about China hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Speaking at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the US should exploit China’s weaknesses, “including by exposing its suppression of human rights at home”.
“The world is rightly alarmed by Chinese human rights abuses and threats to democratic movement,” said Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed. “Earlier this year, the State Department appropriately labelled the abuse of Uygur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities by Chinese security forces as a genocide. Additionally, the Chinese democratic crackdown in Hong Kong signals an increasing willingness by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its will through force.”
Additional reporting by Mark Magnier
