Uighur Genocide - Western Reaction - 2021
On 10 March 2021 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to allow international monitors to probe reports of abuses in the XUAR, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017. The United States on 12 March 2021 slammed China’s harsh treatment of ethnic Uyghurs and other religious minority groups in an address before the U.N. Human Rights Council, describing Beijing’s policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) as “genocide.” “We condemn China’s abuse of members of ethnic and religious minority groups including crimes against humanity and genocide in Xinjiang and severe restrictions in Tibet,” U.S. charge d’affaires Mark Cassayre told the Geneva-based U.N. rights body.
The European Union will target China with sanctions, including a travel ban and asset freezes targeting four people and one entity in Xinjiang, for its treatment of the Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang, the Wall Street Journal reported 11 March 2021 from Brussels.
Lawmakers in Australia and Turkey rejected motions on 15 March 2021 to recognize human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as genocide. In Ankara, an opposition-sponsored motion calling the Chinese treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority in XUAR genocide was rejected by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), while the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) abstained from voting in parliament. In Canberra, the governing Liberal Party-led Coalition and main opposition Labor Party united to block a vote in the Senate on a motion by independent Senator Rex Patrick that the PRC’s treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang constitutes the crime of genocide.
The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials on 22 March 2021 for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the first such coordinated Western action against Beijing under new U.S. President Joe Biden. Western governments are seeking to hold Beijing accountable for mass detentions of Muslim Uighurs in northwestern China, where the United States says China is committing genocide. China denies all accusations of abuse. Beijing hit back immediately with punitive measures against the EU that appeared broader, including European lawmakers, diplomats, institutes and families, and banning their businesses from trading with China.
