China slams US ‘lies’ about treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang region
- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s pledge to raise issue with UN General Assembly draws sharp reaction from Beijing
China has hit back at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s pledge to take its treatment of ethnic Uygurs to the United Nations, saying US “lies” about the western region of Xinjiang would not deceive anyone.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference in Beijing on Monday that Pompeo was not the first US official to make irresponsible remarks about Xinjiang.
“We are strongly dissatisfied with, and resolutely opposed to, these US officials’ neglect of the facts, making irresponsible comments about China’s Xinjiang policy and seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs,” Hua said.
UN experts and activists say at least one million Uygurs and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps in the remote Xinjiang region. Beijing denies any mistreatment at the camps which it says provide vocational training to help stamp out religious extremism and teach new work skills.
US to seek support at UN to ‘call out’ China over treatment of Uygurs
Asked last week at Kansas State University how Washington had been promoting an end to the oppression of Uygurs, Pompeo said it was insufficient and the US would take up their cause at the UN General Assembly this month.
“We’ll do a number of gatherings, where our efforts will be to get other countries to sign up to help us call out this activity,” Pompeo said. “We want freedom for those folks. We have lots of challenges with China, but this is about their fundamental unalienable rights for those particular individuals.”
Hua said, “in essence there is no difference” between what China was doing in Xinjiang and what many other countries had done in the name of fighting extremism and terrorism. “The lies of US politicians can’t deceive anyone,” she said.
The US has ramped up criticism of China’s measures in Xinjiang but has not imposed sanctions while it engages in on-again-off-again talks to resolve a bitter and costly trade war with Beijing.
President Donald Trump’s administration has considered sanctions against Chinese officials, including Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo, a member of the Chinese leadership’s powerful Politburo, since last year, but has held off amid Beijing’s threats of retaliation.
Some members of US Congress and other critics have been dismayed by Trump’s apparent tendency to place efforts to resolve the trade dispute above human rights concerns.
