By this point, most of the world is aware of the reports condemning the Chinese Communist Party for sanctioning abuses of the Uighur Muslim minority. The alleged abuses, including detention in “reeducation camps,” forced abortions, and mass sterilizations, meet the UN’s criteria for genocide: a programmatic suppression of birthrate and population.
China was formally declared guilty of genocide against its Uyghur Muslim minority during the final days of the Trump administration when former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on all multilateral judicial bodies to hold China accountable for this human rights abuse. Antony Blinken, the succeeding U.S. Secretary of State under President Biden, agreed with Pompeo’s stance.
This past week, Canada followed suit, becoming the second country to endorse this verdict against China. In addition, several representative bodies at the United Nations called on the Human Rights Council for a response to reports of coercive fertility reduction including the UK, Turkey, and the European Union. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged China to “allow meaningful access to Xinjiang for independent observers,” while British foreign secretary Dominic Raab demanded “urgent and unfettered” access to Xinjiang.
China has a long history of coercively suppressing birthrates. Perhaps the most prominent is the one-child policy, which ended relatively recently in 2016. However, China’s status as a world power may have influenced UN entities to be reluctant in calling out suspicious reports like those concerning arbitrary detention of Uyghurs brought to light at the 2018 Universal Periodic Review. Many countries fear the loss of profitable economic benefits, should siding against China lead to the destruction of trade relationships. This same reluctance was evident in the World Health Organization’s slow response to initial reports of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Therefore, the recent acknowledgements from Canada and Europe are highly encouraging. They demonstrate a slowly growing push from the international community to recognize China’s human rights abuses. This October, 16 more countries joined a statement first issued a year previously at the UN General Assembly, expressing grave concern over the alleged Uyghur oppression. Though Cuba renewed a statement in defense of China, that declaration lost support from 16 nations compared to 2019. Looking ahead to China’s next UPR in 2023, an even greater outcry can be expected.
However, the Uyghurs’ plight is too urgent to stall until then. To keep up this momentum, countries naming the genocide must go further now on behalf of the Uyghurs, adding weight to their words through concrete action. Any serious effort to compel Beijing will require nations to join together, not only in denouncing genocide, but in the imposing of sanctions that isolate the party-state. It is past time for the UN to implement lessons learned from COVID-19: when we hesitate to shed light on an ugly truth, the cost is deadly.
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