This late-hour atrocity determination is an encouragement to the Biden administration to stand by the voiceless facing atrocities in Xinjiang, as well as a charge to a divided U.S. Congress to unify over the need to help those who can’t help themselves.
On the last day of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a determination saying that genocide and crimes against humanity are taking place against Uighur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang. The determination is an essential step towards ensuring justice for the more than one million Uighurs currently held in political reeducation facilities in China, for the Uighur women being forcibly sterilized at the hands of their own government, and for Uighur-Americans with loved ones in China they haven’t heard from in years. This late-hour atrocity determination is an encouragement to the Biden administration to stand by the voiceless facing atrocities in Xinjiang, as well as a charge to a divided U.S. Congress to unify over the need to help those who can’t help themselves. Evidence has been mounting for genocide and crimes against humanity for quite some time. When reports first emerged in 2017 that Uighurs were being collectivized and interned in political reeducation camps in China, the world knew something terrible was taking place. As time went on, reports from inside Xinjiang became increasingly harrowing.
