This file photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows Chinese flags on a road leading to a facility believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. China on January 20, 2021 dismissed Washington's declaration that Beijing was committing genocide against Uighurs and other minorities as "outrageous lies" and "poison".
Washington: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has applauded the US Department of State for designating China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as genocide and crimes against humanity.
The statement issued by the USCIRF, an independent federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor threats to religious freedom abroad, said that the designation shone an essential light on China's horrific actions against Uyghurs and that it correctly called the persecution what it is: genocide and crimes against humanity.
"We applaud the Trump administration for recognizing the scope and depth of these atrocities. It is evident from the Chinese government's own data that the Communist Party's policies clearly target the Uyghur, Kazakh and other Turkic Muslim peoples."
The commission also called upon the US government to do more to hold China to account and to end the genocide.
"The incoming Biden administration has the unique opportunity to continue the hard work of confronting China's atrocities. USCIRF encourages the U.S. government to seek an independent, international fact-finding mechanism to investigate China's crimes against Uyghur Muslims; work with our international partners to develop measures to protect and assist the region's most vulnerable; and swiftly impose targeted sanctions under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act against the officials responsible for this heinous policy. We urge American and other world leaders and corporations to condemn the genocide and crimes against humanity of the Communist Party of China that have been directed at Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims. The perpetrators must be held to account," the statement reads.
Meanwhile, Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times slammed Donald Trump saying that the changes he has made to the China-US relations and international relations have been largely negative and destructive, and his governance caused unprecedented and irreparable consequences.