State Department laments Beijing’s treatment of ‘Uygurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities’ on second anniversary of damning findings.
The US State Department voiced disappointment on Friday that China has refused to “release all those arbitrarily deprived of their liberty [and] cease all intimidation and reprisals against Uygurs” on the second anniversary of a United Nations report on human rights in Xinjiang.
The 2022 report by the UN high commissioner for human rights concluded that “serious human rights violations” had been committed in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
The State Department on Friday added it was also disappointed that Beijing continued to reject the commission’s findings and refused to implement its recommendations, including curtailing actions “taken against Uygurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and abroad”.
In the UN report two years ago – its most recent involving Xinjiang – the commission found that China’s actions “may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity”, the State Department noted.
“We again urge [Beijing] to take immediate action to end these ongoing atrocities,” the department said in a statement.
