Is It Time For The World To Judge China For The Genocide Of Uighur Muslims?

Chinese President Xi Jinping (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - Senators are in an effort to emphasize the position of the United States (US) in the strong allegation of human rights violations committed by China against ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang. They prepared a statement that what China was doing was genocide. This resolution will have a major impact on China.

This step will put enormous pressure on China, although great care must be taken. The US has so far agreed on China's human rights violations against the Uighurs. But the US has been moving back and forth in its use of the term genocide, given the serious legal implications at home and abroad.

As reported by The Guardian, Wednesday, October 28, US senator from the Republican Party, John Cornyn stated that what China did to the Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minority groups in the autonomous region of Xinjiang is genocide. The resolution was voiced on Tuesday, October 27 by senators across the political spectrum.

"This resolution acknowledges these crimes as they are and is the first step to holding China accountable for their horrific actions," said John.

Senator Jeff Merkley, representing the Democrats, added that the resolution would show that the US cannot remain silent. "China's attacks on Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups such as increasing surveillance, imprisonment, torture and forced 're-education camps' are genocide," he said.

Another, Marco Rubio, a close foreign policy ally of US President Donald Trump, expressed support for this resolution. Apart from Marco, Robert Menendez, who is a senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, also expressed a similar position. Even so, it is somewhat impossible for the movement to be carried out at this time because the senate is out of session until the US election is over on November 3.

The world's eyes are opening

Uighur Muslims in China (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

Rights groups say more than a million Uighurs are languishing in camps in the Xinjiang region. It is thought that the Chinese government is trying to forcibly integrate the community and erode its Islamic heritage.

The Chinese side denies the figure and describes the camps as vocational centers aimed at teaching skills and preventing the allure of Islamic radicalism following a series of attacks. The Trump administration has criticized the situation in Xinjiang and imposed sanctions on the top official of the Communist Party there, Chen Quanguo.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shared the contents of his visit to India on the Print news site. The US and India agree that the fate of the Uighurs "reminds us of what happened in the 1930s in Germany." Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who led Trump in opinion polls, called China's actions genocide.

Biden's campaign team vowed a harsher response. Olivia Enos, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation who studies human rights in Asia, said resolving the genocide in Xinjiang could put pressure on the Chinese government. In the future, the Chinese government is expected to follow human rights regulations and open additional sanctions.

The UN Convention on Genocide, which was drafted after the Holocaust, obliges countries of the world to prevent and punish genocide because it is a disgusting specter. The United Nations defines genocide as acts such as murder and prevention of births "with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."

A data-based study by German researcher Adrian Zenz found that China is forcibly sterilizing large numbers of Uyghur women. The Chinese government is also reportedly pressuring Uyghur women to terminate pregnancies that exceed their birth quota.