China possibly committed 'genocide' against Uyghurs in Xinjiang: US commission report

China possibly carried “genocide” along with other “crimes against humanity” on Uyghurs, the Muslim minority group in the remote western region of Xinjiang, said the new report published on January 14 by a commission of the United States. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said in the report that the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government and Chinese Communist Party have taken unprecedented measures in order to expand its repressive policies including censorship, intimidation and the detention of people in China for exercising the basic human rights.

"Nowhere is this more evident than in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) where new evidence emerged that crimes against humanity--and possibly genocide--are occurring, and in Hong Kong, where the ''one country, two systems'' framework has been effectively dismantled," read CECC report.

It further said that the actions of the Chinese government have ‘contravened’ not only the letter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also its spirit. The CCP’s measures have violated the obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Chian has ‘signed but not ratified’. The report also stated that China violates the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, ratified in 2001. However, contradicting to the narrative of the United States, China has categorically denied any human rights violation in Xinjiang.

The United Nations (UN) has estimated that there are nearly one million Muslims who have been detained in the Asian country’s remote region. Meanwhile, activists claim that several human rights violations are taking place in Xinjiang. But, China has condemned the allegations and claims that the camps in the area are set up to provide ‘vocational training’ to tackle extremism. 

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CECC calls for firm US ‘determination’

Even as the US-China relations are at an all-time low, the commission’s report urged the members of the US Congress and Adisnitartion officials to call on the Chinese government to end the ‘mass arbitrary detention’ of the Muslim ethnic minorities including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and others in camps and released the ones currently detained. The GECC  report encouraged a formal US “determination on whether atrocities are being committed" in Xinjiang.

"The United States must continue to stand with the people of China in their struggle and lead the world in a united and coordinated response to the human rights abuses of the Chinese government," said CECC Chairman Jim McGovern in a statement.

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