Top US diplomat Mike Pompeo to raise Uygur issue with Beijing’s allies on upcoming Central Asian tour

The United States’ top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, will raise China’s mass internment of Muslim ethnic minorities with his central Asian counterparts during his upcoming trip to the region, a senior State Department official said on Monday.

During his visit to eastern Europe and central Asia from Friday through January 7, Pompeo will conduct meetings with representatives from a number of countries that have spoken out in support of Beijing’s actions in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where hundreds of thousands of Uygurs and other largely Muslim minority groups are reported to have been sent to mass detention facilities.

The Chinese government maintains that the camps, which it calls “vocational training centres”, are a humane and legitimate response to the threat of terrorism and religious extremism.

A series of recent government leaks have challenged that narrative, shedding light on a coordinated campaign to forcibly intern citizens and subject them to political indoctrination.

Regional officials said recently that all “trainees” in the facilities had “graduated” and found stable employment, claims that have not persuaded critics of Beijing, among them Washington.