China Slams Pompeo Over Genocide Claims01/20 06:13

   

   BEIJING (AP) -- China's Foreign Ministry described outgoing U.S. Secretary 
of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday as a "doomsday clown" and said his 
designation of China as a perpetrator of genocide and crimes against humanity 
was merely "a piece of wastepaper."

   The allegations of abuses against Muslim minority groups in China's Xinjiang 
region are "outright sensational pseudo-propositions and a malicious farce 
concocted by individual anti-China and anti-Communist forces represented by 
Pompeo," spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters at a daily briefing.

   "In our view, Pompeo's so-called designation is a piece of wastepaper. This 
American politician, who is notorious for lying and deceiving, is turning 
himself into a doomsday clown and joke of the century with his last madness and 
lies of the century," Hua said.

   Pompeo's announcement Tuesday doesn't require any immediate actions, 
although the U.S. must take the designation into account in formulating policy 
toward China. China says its policies in Xinjiang aim only to promote economic 
growth and social stability.

   The U.S. has previously spoken out and taken action on Xinjiang, 
implementing a range of sanctions against senior Chinese Communist Party 
leaders and state-run enterprises that fund repressive policies in the vast, 
resource-rich region. Last week, the Trump administration announced it would 
halt imports of cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang, with Customs and Border 
Protection officials saying they would block products from there suspected of 
being produced with forced labor.

   Many of the Chinese officials accused of having taken part in repression are 
already under U.S. sanctions. The "genocide" designation means new measures 
will be easier to impose.

   Tuesday's move is the latest in a series of steps the outgoing Trump 
administration has taken to ramp up pressure on China over issues from human 
rights and the coronavirus pandemic to Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and the South 
China Sea. China has responded with its own sanctions and tough rhetoric.

   China has imprisoned more than 1 million people, including Uighurs and other 
mostly Muslim ethnic groups, in a vast network of prison-like political 
indoctrination camps, according to U.S. officials and human rights groups. 
People have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political 
indoctrination in addition to 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 the 
Uighurs last year, including the mass sterilization of Muslim women, even while 
family planning restrictions are loosened on members of China's dominant Han 
ethnic group.

   China has denied all the charges, but Uighur forced labor has been linked by 
reporting by the AP to various products imported to the U.S., including 
clothing and electronic goods such as cameras and computer monitors.

   James Leibold, a specialist in Chinese ethnic policy at La Trobe in 
Melbourne, Australia, said international pressure appears to have had some 
effect on Chinese policies in Xinjiang, particularly in prompting the 
government to release information about the camps and possibly reducing mass 
detentions.

   "So hopefully we'll see a continued continuity with regards to the new (Joe 
Biden) administration on holding China to account," Leibold said in an 
interview.

   "And hopefully the Biden administration can bring its allies along to 
continue to put pressure on the Chinese government," he said.