Mike Pompeo stresses Hong Kong autonomy, urges global censure of China over ‘brutal treatment of Uygurs’
- US Secretary of State assails ‘mass human rights violations and abuse against Uygurs and other Muslims’ as part of the Communist Party’s ‘broader war on faith’
- Urges Beijing to honour ‘the commitment that guarantees Hong Kong independent rule of law’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday reaffirmed the American government's support for Hong Kong’s autonomy and called on the international community to condemn China over its “brutal treatment” of Uygur Muslims.
At a Washington press conference, the top US diplomat attacked Beijing’s policies against the Uygurs, who largely live in the Xinjiang autonomous region in China’s northwest, as “part of the [Communist] Party’s broader war on faith”.
“We are asking all countries, particularly those belonging to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, to denounce the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal treatment of Uygurs,” Pompeo said.
More than a million of the group have reportedly been sent to mass detention centres in Xinjiang.
Pompeo applauded a January 2 statement by Bahrain’s Council of Representatives expressing “deep concerns over the inhumane and painful conditions to which Uygur Muslims in China are subjected”.