AFP
The United States on Friday slammed China’s harsh treatment of ethnic Uyghurs and other religious minority groups in an address before the U.N. Human Rights Council, describing Beijing’s policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) as “genocide.”
“We condemn China’s abuse of members of ethnic and religious minority groups including crimes against humanity and genocide in Xinjiang and severe restrictions in Tibet,” U.S. charge d’affaires Mark Cassayre told the Geneva-based U.N. rights body.
Cassayre’s comments followed a call on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for China to allow international monitors to probe reports of abuses in the XUAR, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017.