In the wake of the international reaction to allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang province, Chinese officials are trying to reverse the blame by shedding light on slavery.
At a news conference on Thursday at the Chinese embassy in Washington, Chinese spokesman Hua Chunying deflected questions about the recent boycotts of major brands like Nike, Adidas and H&M after the United States, under President Trump, banned imports of Xinjiang cotton in January.
“On the issue of ‘forced labor’ itself, the accusations against Xinjiang made by some Western countries, including the United States, are based entirely on lies,” Hua told reporters on Thursday.
“Here is a picture of black slaves being forced to work on cotton plantations in the United States,” Hua, who came prepared with the photos, demonstrated to reporters. “Here is another picture of the cotton fields in Xinjiang, China, where more than 70% of the cotton is harvested with machines. There is never ‘forced labor’ in the cotton harvest in Xinjiang. “
“Some are committed to connecting [job opportunity] with forced labor and oppression because they themselves have been doing it for hundreds of years in history, ”she continued. “They are assuming the behavior of others based on their own experience.”
China has recently developed a defensive tactic of trying to circumvent accusations of oppression by bringing up US social justice issues.
A leading Chinese diplomat criticized the United States during a contentious US-China summit in Alaska, saying that “there are many problems in the United States in relation to human rights” and called black life a “deep” issue.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pointed to the abuses denounced in Hong Kong, Taiwan and against Uighurs, an ethnic Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
The highlight of slavery in the US passage comes after the United States, along with other Western countries, imposed new sanctions on the People’s Republic of China (PRC), allegations of human rights violations against Uighurs.
President Biden himself did not classify the abuses committed by the PRC as genocide, but in a statement on Monday, Blinken accused China of continuing to “commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang”.