China's treatment of Uighurs meets criteria of UN Genocide Convention: report
In this file photo taken on Oct. 1, 2020, supporters of China's Muslim Uighur minority wave flags of East Turkestan and hold placards as they gather at the Beyazid square during a demonstration to protest China's Uighur treatment in Istanbul. AFP
Chinese authorities' treatment of Uighurs in China's northwest meets every criteria of genocide under the United Nations' Genocide Convention, said a group of experts in international law, war crimes and the Xinjiang region in a new analysis.
Published on Tuesday by Washington-based think tank Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, the report marked the first independent legal analysis of the applicability of the Genocide Convention to Chinese authorities' actions against the Uygur people.
"China's policies and practices targeting Uighurs in the region must be viewed in their totality, which amounts to an intent to destroy the Uighurs as a group, in whole or in part," researchers wrote.
The analysis drew on public and leaked government statements, individual testimonies, public satellite imagery and other information to reach its conclusions.
Among the evidence cited to accuse intent were remarks made openly by government officials about Uighurs, including calls by a religious affairs official to "break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins".
"The intent to destroy the Uighurs as a group is derived from objective proof, consisting of comprehensive state policy and practice, which President Xi Jinping, the highest authority in China, set in motion," the researchers wrote, citing Xi's launch of the "people's war on terror" in Xinjiang in 2014.
Violation of any one of the Genocide Convention's five clauses is sufficient to constitute a determination of genocide. Researchers said that all five conditions, which include killing or harming the members of a group, had been met, and placed culpability for the violations at the hands of Chinese government entities.
The Genocide Convention's article on genocide also includes: deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment, but Chinese officials have previously adamantly denied charges of genocide, forced labour and mistreatment of Uighurs in the Xinjiang region.
Speaking on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary sessions on Sunday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed allegations of genocide as "downright lies" and attempts to "undermine regional security and stability", according to state news agency Xinhua.
Beyond a host of international law experts, the individuals who contributed to Tuesday's report included Allan Rock, the former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations (UN); Beth Van Schaack and David Scheffer, two former US State Department officials responsible for war crimes issues; and Yves Fortier, a previous president of the UN Security Council.
The findings join declarations by foreign legislatures, including those of Canada and the Netherlands, that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang. The Joe Biden administration has upheld a similar determination made in January by Donald Trump's State Department.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US has "seen nothing that would change our assessment".
Yet while Tuesday's findings join a growing chorus of accusations, they are in themselves unlikely to prompt substantive action within the United Nations. While genocide cases can be brought through the body's international court tribunal mechanism, doing so would need the approval of the UN Security Council, of which China is a member.
The UN office of genocide prevention and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not respond to requests for comment.
An otherwise divided US Congress continues to be unified around the call for a stronger response to China's human rights record.
Responding to Tuesday's report, Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott said it was time "for every freedom-loving nation in the world to recognise and condemn these atrocities", and called for a meeting with the Biden White House to lodge complaints about China hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Speaking at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the US should exploit China's weaknesses, "including by exposing its suppression of human rights at home".
"The world is rightly alarmed by Chinese human rights abuses and threats to democratic movement," said Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed. "Earlier this year, the State Department appropriately labelled the abuse of Uygur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities by Chinese security forces as a genocide. Additionally, the Chinese democratic crackdown in Hong Kong signals an increasing willingness by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its will through force."