Beijing dismisses genocide verdict
LONDON: China committed genocide in the Xinjiang region by preventing births in the Uighur population, a London panel has concluded.
Nine lawyers and human rights experts published their opinion after hearing allegations of torture, rape and inhumane treatment at two evidence sessions this year.
The tribunal was set up at the request of the World Uighur Congress, the largest group representing exiled Uighurs, which lobbies the international community to act against China.
Beijing dismissed its findings and said the congress “paid for liars, bought rumours and gave false testimony in an attempt to concoct a political tool to smear China”.
“This so-called tribunal has neither any legal qualifications or any credibility,” the foreign ministry said, calling the hearings “a political farce”.
It slapped sanctions on the panel chair Geoffrey Nice.
In a 63-page report, the panel said it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the Chinese Communist Party “intended to destroy a significant part” of the Muslim Uighur minority in the country’s northwest and as such “has committed genocide”.
The CCP put in place “a comprehensive system of measures to ‘optimise’ the population in Xinjiang” to reduce the Uighur birthrate, including forced sterilisation, birth control and abortion.
“The population of Uighurs in future generations will be smaller than it would have been without these policies. This will result in a partial destruction of the Uighurs.”
It examined thousands of pages of documentary evidence from independent researchers and human rights organisations.
The panel concluded that hundreds of thousands of Uighurs, and possibly more than one million, had been detained without cause, and treated cruelly and inhumanely.
It said it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that torture had occurred “by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, public officials or other persons acting in official capacities of the PRC and/or CCP”.
It upheld claims of imprisonment, forced transfer, enforced disappearances, rape and sexual violence, persecution and inhumane acts to the same standard of proof.
“The tribunal is satisfied that a comprehensive plan for the enactment of multiple but interlinked policies targeting the Uighurs had been formulated by the PRC,” it added, saying President Xi Jinping and other senior officials “bear primary responsibility”.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden urged an invited group of world leaders to “lock arms” against autocracies at an online democracy summit. China, left off the guest list and infuriated by the participation of Taiwan, accused Mr Biden of “weaponising democracy”.
Other nations that were snubbed included Russia, Hungary and Turkey.
Mr Biden called for an annual meeting to compare democratic achievements.
“In the face of sustained and alarming challenges to universal human rights, democracy needs champions,” he said as he opened the two-day virtual summit facing a screen where at least 80 world leaders were shown.
“Democracy doesn’t happen by accident, we have to renew it with each generation.”