WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has determined that China has committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” by repressing Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday, in an embarrassing blow to Beijing a day before President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office.
Pompeo said he made the move — which is certain to further strain already frayed ties between the world’s top economies — “after careful examination of the available facts,” accusing the Chinese Communist Party of crimes against humanity against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities since at least March 2017.
“I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state,” Pompeo said in a statement.
China has been widely condemned for its complexes in Xinjiang, which it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism. It denies accusations of abuse.
The rare American determination follows intensive internal debate after Congress passed legislation on Dec. 27 requiring the US administration to determine within 90 days whether China had committed crimes against humanity or a genocide.
Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a confirmation hearing on Tuesday that he agreed with the genocide declaration. Biden’s Democratic campaign had declared, before the Nov. 3 US election, that genocide was occurring in Xinjiang.
China’s Embassy in Washington also did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but last week rejected as “lies” a congressional report that said “crimes against humanity — and possibly genocide — are occurring” in Xinjiang.
US-China ties plummeted to their lowest level in decades during Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, and the genocide declaration will ensure an especially difficult start to the Biden administration’s relationship with Beijing.
Daniel Russel, a Biden campaign adviser and a top Asia official under Trump’s predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama, called Pompeo’s move “the height of cynicism” and an attempt to lay “a malicious political booby trap” for Biden, who takes the oath of office on Wednesday.
Some critics have questioned Trump’s commitment to the issue after his former national security adviser John Bolton accused him of backing China’s construction of the Xinjiang camps.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The US decision does not automatically trigger any penalties, but means countries will have to think hard about allowing companies to do business with Xinjiang, a leading global supplier of cotton. Last week, Washington imposed a ban on all cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang.
In his statement, Pompeo called “on all appropriate multilateral and relevant juridical bodies, to join the United States in our effort to promote accountability for those responsible for these atrocities.”
The International Criminal Court can investigate crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but China — like the United States — is not a court member, so the situation in Xinjiang would have to be referred by the UN Security Council where China could veto such a move.
An independent UN human rights panel said in 2018 that it had received credible reports that at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims had been detained in Xinjiang. Faith leaders, and activists have said crimes against humanity, including genocide, are taking place.
In the past 30 years, the US State Department has declared a genocide occurred in at least five situations: Bosnia in 1993, Rwanda in 1994, Iraq in 1995, Darfur, Sudan, in 2004, and in areas under Daesh control in Iraq in 2016 and 2017.
US officials said Pompeo viewed a lot of open-source reporting and evidence before making Tuesday’s declaration, but did not provide specific examples. Pompeo last year referred to a report by German researcher Adrian Zenz that China was using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning against Muslims.
His decision prompted criticism from opponents, who described it as a purely political move, citing the Trump administration’s reluctance to make the same determination for atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Under international law, crimes against humanity are defined as widespread and systematic, whereas the burden of proof for genocide — the intent to destroy part of a population — can be more difficult to prove.
US says China committed ‘genocide’ against Uighur, minority groups in Xinjiang
https://arab.news/2et9b
US says China committed ‘genocide’ against Uighur, minority groups in Xinjiang
- Rights groups believe at least 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking Muslims are incarcerated in camps
- Biden's secretary of state nominee agreed with the genocide declaration
Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’
“Mark Carney, spoke with the Premier of China, Li Qiang. The leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations, including the importance of engagement, and agreed to regularize channels of communication between Canada and China,” it said in a statement.
They also discussed trade and “committed their governments to working together to address the fentanyl crisis.”
Ties between Beijing and Ottawa have been tense in recent years following the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in 2018.
Li told Carney that “in recent years, China-Canada relations have faced unnecessary disturbances and encountered serious difficulties,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
He added that China is “willing to work with Canada to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade” in the face of growing unilateralism and protectionism, Xinhua reported, noting that the call came at Carney’s request.
Both countries have been targeted by US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and have condemned them.
UN rights chief demands US withdraw sanctions on ICC judges
- Volker Turk: ‘I call for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures’
“I call for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures,” Volker Turk said in a statement to media. “Attacks against judges for performance of their judicial functions, at national or international levels, run directly counter to respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law – values for which the US has long stood.”
Lufthansa to restart Tel Aviv flights on June 23
- Lufthansa suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since
BERLIN: Germany’s Lufthansa airline group said Friday it would restart flights to and from Tel Aviv on June 23, having suspended them early last month amid the ongoing regional conflict.
The group said in a statement that the decision would affect Lufthansa, Austrian, SWISS, Brussels Airlines Eurowings, ITA and Lufthansa Cargo but that “for operational reasons,” the individual airlines would only resume services “gradually.”
“The decision is based on an extensive security analysis and in coordination with the relevant authorities,” it added.
The group suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since.
The missile landed near a car park at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and injured six people, the first time a missile had penetrated the airport perimeter.
The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza began in October 2023 with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The Iran-backed Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month Gaza ceasefire that ended in March, but began again after Israel resumed its military campaign in the territory.
The Israeli army has reported several such launches in recent days, with most of the projectiles being intercepted.
Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans
- The world’s fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels
- Many of the country’s nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown
TOKYO: A law allowing nuclear reactors to operate beyond 60 years took effect in Japan on Friday, as the government turns back to atomic energy 14 years after the Fukushima catastrophe.
The world’s fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels – partly because many nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown.
The government now plans to increase its reliance on nuclear power, in part to help meet growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and microchip factories.
The 60-year limit was brought in after the 2011 disaster, which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan.
Under the amended law, nuclear plants’ operating period may be extended beyond 60 years – in a system similar to extra time in football games – to compensate for stoppages caused by “unforeseeable circumstances,” the government says.
This means, for example, that one reactor in central Japan’s Fukui region, suspended for 12 years after the Fukushima crisis, will now be able to operate up until 2047 – 72 years after its debut, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.
But operators require approval from Japan’s nuclear safety watchdog for the exemption. The law also includes measures intended to strengthen safety checks at aging reactors.
The legal revision is also aimed at helping Japan better cope with power crunches, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked energy market turmoil.
Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan had previously vowed to “reduce reliance on nuclear power as much as possible.”
But this pledge was dropped from the latest version approved in February, which includes an intention to make renewables the country’s top power source by 2040.
Under the plan, nuclear power will account for around 20 percent of Japan’s energy supply by 2040 – up from 5.6 percent in 2022.
Also in February, Japan pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent in the next decade from 2013 levels, a target decried by campaigners as far short of what was needed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
Japan is the world’s fifth largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the United States, India and Russia.
Three Serbs charged over paint attack on France Jewish sites
- France’s Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint in the night of Friday to Saturday
PARIS: A French judge has charged three Serbs with vandalizing Jewish sites with paint at the weekend “to serve the interests of a foreign power,” a judicial source said Friday.
A source close to the case said investigators suspect Russia is behind the attacks for which the men were charged on Thursday evening.
They had exchanged messages on Telegram with other individuals not yet apprehended, it added.
France’s Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint in the night of Friday to Saturday, in what the Israeli embassy denounced as a “coordinated anti-Semitic attack.”
The source following the case described the three suspects, two born in 1995 and one born in 2003, as having completed a task motivated by financial compensation, but without being aware of any geopolitical implications.
They were two brothers and a third person who had lived in France for several years, the source said.
They were arrested on Monday in southeast France as they tried to leave the country.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he was “deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community.”
Israeli’s President Isaac Herzog said Saturday he was “dismayed” by the Paris vandalism, noting that his great-grandfather had been a rabbi at one of the synagogues.
In the run-up to the Summer Olympics in Paris last year, several high-profile stunts intended to influence French public opinion led French officials to point the finger at Moscow.
They included red hands tagged on Paris’s main Holocaust memorial in May 2024.
In October 2023, soon after the Palestinian militant attack on Israel that sparked the latest Gaza war, stars of David were tagged on buildings in the Paris region, with two Moldovans suspected of working for the Russian FSB security service later arrested.
Russia has previously denied any involvement in any of the plots attributed to it by French officials.
