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State Dept determination, 1/19/2021, that PRC policies in Xinjiang Uyghur Region comprise genocide and crimes against humanity is important. Below, first, essentials, then I'll discuss Pompeo's lies in the statement (a thread for the record) 1/22 https://bit.ly/3nTi5ig
This follows a November Biden campaign statement calling the policies in Xinjiang "genocide," so we can expect the new administration will continue to endorse this determination once it takes office tomorrow 2/22. https://www.axios.com/biden-campaign-china-uighur-genocide-3ad857a7-abfe-4b16-813d-7f074a8a04ba.html
To be more than rhetoric, however, such a determination must serve a strategic purpose. Hopefully, will help Biden admin rally other nations to collectively condemn PRC treatment of Uyghurs and others. EU, Britain have trade deals with PRC pending; they should think again. 3/22
Crucially, the determination IDs "crimes against humanity" as well as "genocide" in the Uyghur Region. What's happening in Xinjiang clearly meets at least 3 of the 5 criteria of genocide as defined in the 1948 UN Convention on Crime of Genocide 4/22 https://bit.ly/2M3xzDd
But that convention's Article II requires that the acts be committed with "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group," which may be a hard standard to prove. 5/22
Crimes against humanity, on the other hand, are defined more concretely by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 7. There is copious evidence that many of the acts enumerated in this statute have been taking place in Xinjiang. 6/22
Moreover, countries that are members of the International Criminal Court, notably Tajikistan, have been party to refoulements of Uyghurs back to the PRC where they are subject to persecution and crimes against humanity. 7/22 https://bit.ly/35WUirp
This, according to some international law experts, gives the ICC standing to hear cases regarding crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, even though the PRC is not a member of the ICC. Now--my criticism of Pompeo's hypocrisy and disingenuous bullshit: 8/22
Pompeo, who today accused PRC of international crimes, opposes international legal institutions and twice threatened the Internat'l Criminal Court for doing its job looking into crimes in Afghanistan and Palestine. 9/22 https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/22/us-official-threatens-international-criminal-court-again
Also, Pompeo claims "For the past four years, this Administration has exposed the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and called it what it is: a Marxist-Leninist regime that exerts power over the long-suffering Chinese people through brainwashing and brute force." 10/22
But in fact, Pompeo's boss Trump and his admin PREVENTED Congress from acting for 2 1/2 critical years. A Uyghur human rights act passed the Senate in Nov. 2018 11/22 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/7123?s=1&r=2
It was followed by similar bipartisan bills in House and Senate through 2019. All blocked by Trump's administration, which thought that attention to human rights would upset prospects for a trade deal— 12/22
--a trade deal to resolve the tariff crisis Trump himself unilaterally created and which has achieved nothing (China to US trade deficit now higher than when Trump took office; US citizens paid billions in taxes). 13/22 https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/24/economy/us-china-trade-war-intl-hnk/index.html
Treasury Secr Steve Mnuchin reportedly led opposition to US doing anything to help Uyghurs. Trump meanwhile told his staff that concentration camps for Uyghurs were just fine: he did so twice, in 2017... 14/22 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/19/trump-state-departments-final-act-calling-out-china-genocide/
and Trump verbally approved of China putting Uyghurs in concentration camps in 2018 15/22 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/17/bolton-says-trump-didnt-just-ignore-human-rights-encouraged-chinas-concentration-camps/
In June 2019 at Osaka G20 Trump told Xi Jinping that Trump had no objections to Uyghurs in concentration camps, according to Trump's own former National Security Adviser, John Bolton 16/22 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-uighur-muslims-concentration-camps-xi-china-john-bolton-book-a9571921.html
Only in spring of 2020 LESS THAN ONE YEAR AGO the bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Act was allowed to come up for a vote, pass Congress, and Trump signed it. 17/22 https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3744
Although there were good people in the US government working on this issue through that whole period, despite the unconscionable active and passive support for PRC repression of Uyghurs by Trump himself, don't give Pompeo or Trump credit for this for determination today. 18/22
And PLEASE don't keep saying Trump was "tough on China." It was bluster, incoherence, petulance w/ absolute failure to do meaningful things even on economics, thanks largely to dissing allies and economic dumbfuckery re trade deficits 19/22
Pompeo lies that "this administration" exposed atrocities in XJ. No, it was journalists, researchers and victims who from 2017 exposed the camps, birth suppression, separation of children from families, forced labor etc. years before Trump flipped on his "good friend" Xi 20/22
Today's finding of genocide and crimes against humanity in the Uyghur Region will be good if it actually helps. 21/22
But a loose cannon careens port then starboard on a rudderless ship. A broken clock is right twice a day. Don't credit rump Trump architects of chaotic China policy for eleventh hour gestures they first opposed for years. 22/22
