US senators on Tuesday sought to declare that China is committing genocide against Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.
The resolution was introduced by senators across the political spectrum, although it is unlikely to move immediately, as the Senate is out of session until after the election on Tuesday next week.
The text states that China’s campaign “against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region constitutes genocide.”
Photo: Reuters
“This resolution recognizes these crimes for what they are and is the first step toward holding China accountable for their monstrous actions,” said US Senator John Cornyn, who sponsored the proposal.
US Senator Jeff Merkley said the resolution would show that the US “can’t stay silent.”
“China’s assault on Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups — escalating surveillance, imprisonment, torture and forced ‘re-education camps’ — is genocide, pure and simple,” Merkley said.
Other cosponsors include US senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rights groups say that more than 1 million Uighurs languish in camps in the Xinjiang region as Beijing attempts to forcibly integrate the community and expunge its Islamic heritage.
Olivia Enos, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who studies human rights in Asia, said that a genocide resolution on Xinjiang could put pressure on the White House to follow suit and pave the way for additional sanctions.
“Obviously, it would be great to have the executive branch say that this is genocide and/or crimes against humanity, but I think, in lieu of that, this would be a very strong, bipartisan message that the US government cares about the state of the Uighur people, even and especially when the Chinese Communist Party does not,” Enos said.
China yesterday accused the senators of telling “all kinds of lies.”
The “so-called genocide in Xinjiang is a rumor deliberately concocted by some anti-China forces,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told reporters.
“The US senators you mentioned have always been anti-China, and are keen to concoct all kinds of lies to discredit China and use them to seek their own political gains,” Wang said.
Wang said that the US was culpable in the “assimilation and massacres of Native Americans in history to greatly reduce their population.”
“We urge certain US politicians to respect the facts, stop fabricating lies and stop using Xinjiang-related issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
The Tourism Administration yesterday announced that it would reward repeat international visitors with incentives of up to NT$8,000 to boost inbound tourism. The incentives are available to all international tourists, it said, adding that repeat visitors would be rewarded with NT$5,000 and would receive an additional NT$3,000 if they bring travel companions. The nation received 2,990,657 inbound visitors during the first quarter, marking a 3.8 percent increase from the same period last year, agency data showed. Japanese nationals are among groups visiting Taiwan the most. About 1.48 million Japanese tourists arrived last year, a year-on-year increase of more than 12
66 FIGHTER JETS: The aircraft is likely undergoing preparations for its transfer to Taiwan — a significant step forward in the nation’s modernization program, a lawmaker said The first of Taiwan’s order of F-16V Block 70 aircraft has been sighted in Texas ahead of delivery, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said. Taiwan’s first F-16V Block 70 two-seat aircraft, tail number 6831, was seen flying from Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Greenville, South Carolina, to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas, Wang wrote on Facebook yesterday. The plane is likely undergoing preparations for its transfer to Taiwan, marking a significant step forward in the Republic of China Air Force’s modernization program, Wang said, citing military analysts. The F-16V Block 70 is a new-build version
‘BRAZEN’: The holiday did not stop China from activities that infringe on Taiwan’s maritime jurisdiction, but the CGA is ready to defend the nation, Kuan Bi-ling said Beijing is intensifying maritime pressure on Taiwan, but the nation will never yield, Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Sung Chen-en (宋承恩) said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has adopted a “shadowing and monitoring” approach to avoid falling into a Chinese trap to escalate tensions and deepen the conflict, Sung said in an interview published yesterday in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). China Coast Guard formations patrolling waters east of Taiwan, as well as official Chinese vessels entering areas around Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) and Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) show Beijing’s attempts to significantly step up
BOOST: By operating the same advanced systems as the US military, Taiwan would be better positioned to share and integrate intelligence with partners, an expert said The first batch of MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones has arrived in Taiwan, and is being assembled and tested by drone manufacturer General Atomics and the military ahead of flight trials as part of the air force’s acquisition to bolster its aerial surveillance capabilities, a source said yesterday. The air force allocated a budget of NT$21.7 billion (US$687 million) from 2022 to 2029 to procure four MQ-9B uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) manufactured by General Atomics along with associated equipment such as ground control stations. The US has agreed to deliver the four MQ-9Bs to Taiwan in two batches this year and next
RSS