While the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken carried on the Trump administration’s condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party’s raging human rights violations against the Uyghur religious minority group in Xinjiang as “crimes against humanity and genocide” last week, Cuba and other countries defended China’s actions.
Cuba, joined by 63 other countries including China, called on the U.S. and other nations on Friday to “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs by manipulating Xinjiang-related issues, (and) refrain from making unfounded allegations against China out of political motivations.” The joint statement claimed Xinjiang is “an inseparable part of China.”
Just last year, Cuba, along with 45 other countries, released a similar propaganda-filled statement, which was featured on multiple CCP state-run media sites, condemning countries such as the U.S. for making “unfounded allegations against China and interference out of political motivation and bias. The joint statement also praised China’s “people-centered philosophy in advancing economic and social sustainable development, eradicating poverty, increasing employment, improving people’s living standard and promoting and protecting human rights.”
The statement claimed China was taking measures to “safeguard the human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.” It continued:
People of all ethnic groups enjoy their happy lives in a peaceful and stable environment. China maintains openness and transparency by, among other things, inviting more than 1,000 diplomats, officials of international organizations, journalists, and religious personages to visit Xinjiang, who witnessed Xinjiang’s remarkable achievements. We take note that the Chinese government has extended an invitation to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang and the two sides are keeping contacts on the matter.
The U.S. first officially declared the CCP’s actions as genocide against the Uighurs in January after reports detailing the mass imprisonment of more than 1 million people, forced labor, forced sterilization, torture, and limits on religious freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and more surfaced. According to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the “crimes against humanity” have been occurring in Xinjiang since at least March 2017.
President Joe Biden previously dismissed China’s actions as a “different norm,” saying that he would not “speak out against” the country or its communist leaders.
“If you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been, the time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home,” Biden said. “So the central — well, vastly overstated — the central principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that.”
