BEIJING (AP) – China’s Foreign Ministry described United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday as a “doomsday clown” and said his designation of China as the author of genocide and crimes against humanity was just “a piece of paper.”
The allegations of abuse against Muslim minority groups in China’s Xinjiang region are “sensational pseudo-propositions and a malicious farce invented by individual anti-China and anti-communist forces represented by Pompeo,” spokesman Hua Chunying told reporters at a news conference. daily.
“In our opinion, the so-called Pompeo designation is a used piece of paper. This American politician, who is notorious for lying and cheating, is turning into a doomsday clown and joke of the century with his last madness and lies of the century, ”said Hua.
Pompeo’s announcement on Tuesday does not require any immediate action, although the United States must take the designation into account when formulating its policy towards China. China says its policies in Xinjiang are only aimed at promoting economic growth and social stability.
The United States has already spoken out and acted against Xinjiang, implementing a series of sanctions against Chinese Communist Party leaders and state-owned companies that finance repressive policies in the vast resource-rich region. Last week, the Trump administration announced it would suspend imports of cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang, with Customs and Border Protection officials saying they would block products there suspected of being produced by forced labor.
Many of the Chinese officials accused of participating in the crackdown are already under US sanctions. The term “genocide” means that new measures will be easier to impose.
Tuesday’s action is the latest in a series of measures the current Trump administration has taken to increase pressure on China on human rights issues and the coronavirus pandemic in Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and the South Sea of China. China responded with its own sanctions and harsh rhetoric.
China has arrested more than 1 million people, including Uighurs and other ethnic Muslim groups, in a vast network of prison-like political indoctrination camps, according to US officials and human rights groups. People were subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination, as well as forced labor as part of an assimilation campaign in a region whose inhabitants are ethnically and culturally distinct from the Han Chinese majority.
The Associated Press reported on widespread forced birth control among Uighurs last year, including mass sterilization of Muslim women, while family planning restrictions are loosened for members of the Han dominant ethnic group in China.
China has denied all charges, but Uighur forced labor has been linked by AP reports to several products imported into the U.S., including clothing and electronics, such as cameras and computer monitors.
James Leibold, an expert on Chinese ethnic policy at La Trobe in Melbourne, Australia, said international pressure appears to have had some effect on Chinese policies in Xinjiang, especially in causing the government to release information about the camps and possibly reduce detentions. in large scale.
“Therefore, we hope to see continued continuity with the new government (Joe Biden) in holding China accountable,” Leibold said in an interview.
“And, hopefully, the Biden government can bring in its allies to continue to put pressure on the Chinese government,” he said.
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Associated Press journalist Dake Kang contributed to this report.