WASHINGTON – The United States on Tuesday said it would curb visas forChinese officials until Beijing ends its “repression” of Uighurs and otherMuslims in the western region of Xinjiang, a day after imposing commercialrestrictions.
The one-two punch by President Donald Trump’s administration marks the mostforceful attempt by a foreign power to address what some rights groups calla historic crisis in Xinjiang, and comes amid a range of feuds between theUnited States and China.
“China has forcibly detained over one million Muslims in a brutal,systematic campaign to erase religion and culture in Xinjiang,” Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter.
“China must end its draconian surveillance and repression, release allthose arbitrarily detained and cease its coercion of Chinese Muslimsabroad,” he said.
In an accompanying statement, Pompeo said that the State Department wouldrestrict visas granted to government and ruling Communist Party officialsinvolved in “detention or abuse” of Uighurs, Kazakhs or members of otherpredominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
The order will also affect their family members, including children who maybe seeking to study in the United States.
The State Department said it could not specify which officials wereaffected due to US confidentiality laws.
But lawmakers have specifically asked for action against Chen Quanguo, theCommunist Party chief for Xinjiang.
Reputed within the party for his handling of minority groups, he earlierled iron-fisted policies aimed at crushing dissent in Tibet.Defying Chinese protests
China voiced anger at the move, denying any human rights abuses in Xinjiangand accusing the United States of using “made-up pretexts for itsinterference”.
“The counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang are aimedto eradicate the breeding soil of extremism and terrorism,” the Chineseembassy in Washington said on Twitter.
“They are in line with Chinese laws and international practices,and aresupported by all 25 million people of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang,”it said.
The visa step came hours after China issued a similar protest over actionby the US Commerce Department.
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It blacklisted 28 Chinese entities including video surveillance firmHikvision and artificial intelligence companies Megvii Technology andSenseTime over their involvement in Xinjiang.
Rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other Muslims are beingheld in a vast network of camps in Xinjiang aimed at homogenising thepopulation to reflect China’s majority Han culture.
Witnesses say that China has sought to force Uighurs to drop core practicesof Islam such as fasting during Ramazan and abstaining from alcohol andpork.
China, after initially denying the camps, describes them as vocationalschools aimed at dampening the allure of extremism and violence.
Authorities have cracked down especially hard since 2009, when nearly 200people died in riots in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, which has seen an influxof Han Chinese.
The violence was sparked by news of a factory brawl in southern China inwhich two Uighur migrant workers were killed.
Pompeo has previously called China’s treatment of Uighurs one of the “worststains on the world” and likened the camps to actions by Nazi Germany.
But few Muslim leaders have spoken out against a rising China with theexception of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which has linguisticand cultural connections with the Uighurs.
Rights advocates also say that Trump has been inconsistent in exercisingpressure over human rights, with the tycoon president warmly embracingauthoritarian leaders of allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The actions on Xinjiang come as a trade war shows no signs of abatingbetween the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies,which have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each other’sgoods.
At the United Nations last month, Trump also warned China that the UnitedStates was watching Hong Kong, where months of swelling protests havedemanded that Beijing respect the city’s semi-autonomous status. -APP/AFP
