{"id":1531,"date":"2020-01-09T09:23:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T09:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1531"},"modified":"2020-01-09T13:49:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T13:49:35","slug":"u-s-lawmakers-urge-action-on-chinas-crimes-against-humanity-targeting-uighurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1531","title":{"rendered":"U.S. lawmakers urge action on China’s ‘crimes against humanity’ targeting Uighurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AFP-JIJI<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2013\u00a0<\/span>U.S. lawmakers called Wednesday for President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to impose sanctions over rights abuses in China as they released a report describing \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d against the Uighur minority.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging annual report, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which tracks human rights in the Asian power, voiced alarm at Beijing\u2019s incarceration of more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission believes Chinese authorities may be committing crimes against humanity against the Uighur people and other Turkic Muslims,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Chris Smith, a member of the commission, pointed to Uighur witnesses who said they were targeted for their Muslim faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about crimes against humanity on a massive scale,\u201d Smith told a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking, with regards to what is being done to the Uighurs, something we have not seen since World War II. And the Chinese government, particularly (President) Xi Jinping, needs to be held accountable for this egregious behavior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Marco Rubio, a close ally of President Donald Trump and co-chair of the commission, vowed that Congress would soon pass an act that seeks sanctions on officials over abuses and restricts exports of surveillance and other equipment seen as assisting in repression in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

The Democratic-led House of Representatives and Republican-led Senate need to reconcile similar acts they approved last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe House and Senate agree on what we\u2019re trying to do. Just the language has to be identical,\u201d Rubio said, without promising a date.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers said it was crucial that the Trump administration implement the Uighur rights law \u2014 as well as a separate act on Hong Kong and an upcoming initiative on Tibet.<\/p>\n

Congress last year nearly unanimously approved an act that ties U.S. favorable trading status for Hong Kong to certification that Beijing has preserved the semi-autonomous status of the city, which has seen massive pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n

Trump signed the law after musing on how it could jeopardize his efforts to press China in an intense trade war.<\/p>\n

Rubio said lawmakers across the partisan divide wanted to prioritize human rights but acknowledged that the administration was also concerned about trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that, by and large, they are supportive of what we are saying but, again, the proof will be in the implementation\u201d of the act, Rubio said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat who co-chairs the commission, said he appreciated the Trump administration\u2019s strong statements on Xinjiang but said there needed to be action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to get beyond talking the talk. We need to actually walk the walk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Uighur activists and witnesses say China is forcibly seeking to integrate the ethnic group. Beijing argues that it is offering vocational training in a bid to discourage extremism.<\/p>\n

Source: Japan Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFP-JIJI WASHINGTON \u2013\u00a0U.S. lawmakers called Wednesday for President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to impose sanctions over rights abuses in China as they released a report describing \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d against the Uighur minority. In a wide-ranging annual report, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which tracks human rights in the Asian power, voiced alarm at Beijing\u2019s incarceration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uyghur-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}