Washington, Sep 18 (IANS) The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has called on the US President Donald Trump and his administration to raise the issue of Uyghur genocide in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, as well as transnational repression of diaspora communities by Chinese authorities, during President Xi Jinping’s visit to the US on September 24.
According to the WUC, the United States formally recognised the deteriorating situation in Xinjiang as genocide for the first time on January 19, 2021. The US State Department reaffirmed that position in an official statement on September 10, weeks ahead of Xi’s visit.
“Xi’s visit to Washington is a strategic moment to move beyond words of condemnation on the Uyghur genocide. The United States has been a strong and vocal ally to the Uyghur people, and Donald Trump has to use this opportunity to continue proving it,” said WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun.
The group said that although the Chinese authorities have changed the repression tactics, millions of detained and disappeared individuals remain unaccounted for.
“Labour transfer programs have increased in recent years, forcibly displacing Uyghur workers and coercing them into work. With the implementation of the Ethnic Unity and Progressive Law, even the most basic expressions of religious and cultural rights have been criminalised,” said the WUC, highlighting the atrocities by Chinese authorities.
“The Chinese government has also been actively trying to disrupt diaspora communities abroad, by intimidating, threatening Uyghurs abroad, particularly human rights activists on US soil. Such horrific atrocities necessitate a robust and coordinated response from the United States and the international community. The US now has the opportunity to take a principled stance and enact real change,” it added.
The WUC urged the US administration to substantively and meaningfully raise the Uyghur genocide in its discussions with Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials during their visit to Washington. It appealed to the US leaders to demand that Beijing stop “genocide of Uyghurs and other human rights violations” and honour its human rights obligations as a condition for normal relations with China.
The organisation further called on the US to press the Chinese government to end its policies of transnational repression, particularly in American territory, in order to protect the American Uyghur, Tibetan, Hong Kong, and Chinese diaspora communities.
--IANS
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