China and US swap accusations of genocide, but does it make any sense? By Jan van der Made - RFI LISTEN AP - Andy Wong The last official act of out-going US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to accuse China of perpetrating "genocide" against its Uyghur population. China was quick to point to the US's treatment of its own indigenous people, to the American history of slavery and discrimination. The increasingly vitriolic war of words adds to the ongoing deterioration of ties between Beijing and Washington. In a strongly worded press release published on 19 January - a day before Pompeo left office - the US State Department accused China of "crimes against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang," including "arbitrary imprisonment ... of more than one million civilians, forced sterilisation, torture, forced labour" and other humen rights violations, which, according to Pompeo, add up to "genocide".