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
Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests
But the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation.
Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert.
It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say.
“Green charcoal” aims to protect what forest is left.
Made from discarded plant waste such as millet and sesame stalks or palm fronds, it is meant to save trees from being chopped down for cooking.
The product “releases less emissions than traditional charcoal, it doesn’t blacken your pots, it has high energy content and lasts up to three times longer than ordinary charcoal,” said Ousmane Alhadj Oumarou, technical director of the Raikina Association for Socioeconomic Development (Adser).
“Using one kilogramme of green charcoal saves six kilogrammes of wood.”
The group has installed a production facility in Pont Belile, just north of the capital, N’Djamena.
There, workers grind up burnt plant waste, then mix it with gum arabic, which helps it ignite, and clay, which makes it burn more slowly.
The resulting black nuggets look like ordinary charcoal.
Like the traditional kind, it emits CO2 when it burns — but less, said Souleymane Adam Adey, an ecologist at the University of N’Djamena.
And “it contributes to fighting deforestation, by ensuring the trees that aren’t cut down continue to capture and store carbon,” he said.
The conflict in neighboring Sudan, which is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, is adding to pressure on Chad, which has become home to more than 800,000 Sudanese refugees since 2023 — double the 400,000 it already hosted.
“Desertification has progressed in the regions that have been hosting Sudanese refugees for the past two years,” said Adser’s director, 45-year-old businessman Ismael Hamid.
Adser invested 200 million CFA francs (about $350,000) to launch the project, then won backing from the World Bank, which buys the charcoal for 750 CFA francs per kilogramme.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, distributes the charcoal in refugee camps in eastern Chad.
But Hamid said he hoped to expand production and slash prices to 350 to 500 CFA francs per kilo to make “green charcoal” available and affordable nationwide.
The plant currently produces seven to nine tons per day.
“If we want to meet the country’s needs, we have to increase our output by at least a factor of 10,” said Hamid, calling for subsidies to support the budding sector.
Environment Minister Hassan Bakhit Djamous told AFP the government was working on a policy to promote such projects.
“We need to bet on green charcoal as an energy source for the future of our country,” he said.
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Philippine Navy seizes $175 million meth haul at sea
- A pair of naval gunboats intercepted a fishing vessel carrying 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine hydrochloride off the coast of main island Luzon just before dawn
MANILA: The Philippine Navy seized an illegal drug shipment worth $175 million (10 billion pesos) on Friday in one of the country’s biggest narcotics hauls on record, officials said.
A pair of naval gunboats intercepted a fishing vessel carrying 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine hydrochloride off the coast of main island Luzon just before dawn, Commodore Edward de Sagon told a press conference.
Four people, including one foreigner, were arrested in the joint operation with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, according to de Sagon.
“We still don’t have the details of where (the drugs originated),” he said, saying they believed the haul had been transferred from a larger vessel to the fishing ship.
“That was when it was intercepted. There was information and (maneuvers) that made us suspicious,” de Sagon said.
Meth, known locally as shabu, is the most prevalent illegal drug in the Philippines.
“This is one of the largest illegal drug apprehensions in the history of the Philippine Navy,” navy spokesman John Percie Alcos said in a statement.
Earlier this month, a large volume of drugs was found adrift just north of the area where Wednesday’s arrests were made.
The Philippines’ biggest-ever drug seizure came in April last year when more than two tonnes of meth was seized at a police checkpoint on a road in Batangas province south of the capital, according to the presidential palace.
Rwanda arrests opposition leader, says investigative body
- Ingabire is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organization and engaging in acts that incite public disorder” according to the Rwanda Investigations Bureau
KIGALI: Rwanda has arrested prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who is being held at a detention facility in the capital Kigali on charges of inciting the public and creating a criminal organization, a state investigative agency said.
Ingabire was freed in 2018 after serving six years of a 15-year jail sentence handed to her in 2012 following her conviction on charges related to conspiring to form an armed group and seeking to minimize the 1994 genocide.
She is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organization and engaging in acts that incite public disorder,” the Rwanda Investigations Bureau said in a statement late on Thursday.
It did not say when she would be charged in court.
Ingabire, who heads unregistered opposition party DALFA–Umurinzi, returned from exile in the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010, but was barred from standing after being accused of genocide denial.
Last year President Paul Kagame, in power for a quarter of a century, won re-election after securing 99.18 percent of the vote, according to the electoral body.
Kagame is lauded for transforming Rwanda from the ruins of the 1994 genocide to a thriving economy but his reputation has also been tainted by longstanding accusations of rights abuses and supporting rebels in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
He denies the allegations.
Taiwan detects 50 Chinese military aircraft around island
- China insists democratic, self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the island under its control
- Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its claim of sovereignty
TAIPEI: Taiwan detected 50 Chinese military aircraft around the island, the defense ministry said Friday, days after a British naval vessel sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
China insists democratic, self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the island under its control.
Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its claim of sovereignty, which Taipei rejects.
Taiwan also accuses China of using espionage, cyberattacks and disinformation to weaken its defenses.
Along with the 50 aircraft, six Chinese naval vessels were also detected in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday), the defense ministry said.
It said in a separate statement that an additional 24 Chinese aircraft including fighters and drones were spotted since 08:50 am Friday.
Among them, 15 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in conducting air-sea joint training with Chinese naval vessels, the ministry said, adding it “monitored the situation and responded accordingly.”
The latest incursion came after British Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Spey sailed through the Taiwan Strait on June 18, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Thursday.
The United States and other countries view the 180-kilometer Taiwan Strait as international waters that should be open to all vessels.
The last time a British Navy ship transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2021, when the HMS Richmond, a frigate deployed with Britain’s aircraft carrier strike group, sailed through from Japan to Vietnam.
China strongly condemned Britain at the time and deployed its military to follow the vessel.
In April, Taiwan detected 76 Chinese aircraft and 15 naval vessels around the island, when Beijing conducted live-fire exercises that included simulated strikes aimed at the island’s key ports and energy sites.
The highest number of Chinese aircraft recorded was 153 on October 15, after China staged large-scale military drills in response to Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te’s National Day speech days earlier.
North Korea flag disrupts South Korea church livestream in ‘hacking incident’
- The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang’s propaganda music
SEOUL: One of South Korea’s largest megachurches said Friday its YouTube worship service was briefly hacked during a live broadcast to display the North Korean flag, with a government agency saying it was checking the details.
The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang’s propaganda music.
The flag was displayed for about 20 seconds, a church official told AFP, adding that the incident had been reported to the police.
“During the early morning worship service on June 18, an unexpected video was broadcast due to a hacking incident,” the church said in a separate statement.
“We are currently conducting an urgent investigation into the cause of the incident and will take appropriate measures as soon as the situation is clarified.”
South Korea’s state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency told AFP it was “looking into the case.”
Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early Wednesday morning.
An “inappropriate” video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an “external hacking” attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea.
South Korea, widely recognized as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyberhacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past.
Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network — including individuals’ financial records — over a two-year period.
The stolen data amounted to more than one gigabyte.
Also last year, Seoul’s spy agency said North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and entice South Koreans working at defense companies so the spies could access information on the firms’ technology.
