Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 2
A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 27 november 2019
U.S. criticizes China for abuses revealed by leaked cables
By MATTHEW LEE fied blueprint leaked to the
AP Diplomatic Writer news organizations shows
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sec- the camps are instead pre-
retary of State Mike Pom- cisely what former detain-
peo said Tuesday that a ees have described: forced
cache of leaked docu- ideological and behavioral
ments proves that Chinese re-education centers run in
authorities are engaged in secret.
massive and systemic re- The documents lay out the
pression of Muslims and oth- Chinese government's de-
er minorities in western Chi- liberate strategy to lock up
na, as a number of foreign ethnic minorities even be-
governments expressed fore they commit a crime,
serious concern about the and to rewire their thoughts
scale of the campaign. and the language they
Pompeo said the docu- speak.
ments underscored "an The papers also show how
overwhelming and grow- Beijing is pioneering a new
ing body of evidence" that form of social control us-
China's leaders are respon- ing data and artificial intel-
sible for gross human rights ligence. Drawing on data
violations in the Xinjiang re- collected by mass surveil-
gion. lance technology, com-
"They detail the Chinese Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks with reporters at the State Department, Tuesday, Nov. 26, puters issued the names of
party's brutal detention and 2019 in Washington. tens of thousands of peo-
systematic repression of Ui- Associated Press ple for interrogation or de-
tention in just one week.
ghurs and members of oth- and it is ongoing." Pompeo said the docu-
er Muslim minority groups The leaked classified docu- ments should encourage
in Xinjiang," Pompeo told ments were provided to other countries to come
reporters at a State Depart- the International Consor- forward with their con-
ment news conference. tium of Investigative Jour- cerns.
"We call on the Chinese nalists, which worked with U.S. allies were among the
government to immediate- The Associated Press and first to step up.
ly release all those who are news organizations around "We have serious concerns
arbitrarily detained and to the world to publish the about the human rights
end its draconian policies material. situation in Xinjiang and
that have terrorized its own The documents, which in- the Chinese government's
citizens in Xinjiang." clude guidelines for op- escalating crackdown, in
Pompeo's comments erating detention centers particular the extra-judicial
come at a delicate time in and instructions for how to detention of over a million
U.S.-Chinese relations amid use technology to target Uyghur Muslims and other
ongoing negotiations to people, reveal that the ethnic minorities," a British
end a trade war and U.S. camps in Xinjiang are not Foreign Office spokesper-
concerns about the situa- for voluntary job training, as son said. "We want to see
tion in Hong Kong, where Beijing has claimed. an end to the indiscrimi-
pro-democracy protests They show the camps are nate and disproportionate
have turned violent with used for forced ideological restrictions on the cultural
clashes between police and behavioral re-educa- and religious freedoms of
and demonstrators. Nota- tion. They also illustrate how Uyghur Muslims and other
bly, his criticism was not ac- Beijing uses a high-tech sur- ethnic minorities in Xinji-
companied by a warning veillance system to target ang."
about possible sanctions people for detention and German Foreign Minister
for the mass detentions, al- to predict who will commit Heiko Maas told the Ger-
though U.S. lawmakers are a crime. man China-Cables team
pressing for penalties to be Voluntary job training is the that "if indeed hundreds of
imposed. reason the Chinese gov- thousands of Uighurs are
"There are very significant ernment has given for de- being detained in camps,
human rights abuses," Pom- taining more than a million then the international com-
peo said. "It shows that it's ethnic minorities, most of munity cannot close their
not random. It is intentional them Muslim. But a classi- eyes."q
