Washington D.C., Mar 30, 2021 / 09:00 am
After China announced retaliatory sanctions against U.S. human rights advocates this weekend, advocates responded they would not be silent about the “genocide” in Xinjiang.
“The Chinese government’s baseless sanctions on U.S. and foreign government officials who advocate for human rights and religious freedom in China are an attempt to silence growing international criticism and scrutiny of its genocidal policies against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang,” stated Gayle Manchin, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on Tuesday.
“USCIRF will not be silenced. We will not stop speaking out against the Chinese government’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity,” Manchin stated.
USCIRF is a bipartisan federal commission tasked with promoting international religious freedom, advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience, and condemning religious persecution around the world. The commission has been outspoken that China’s actions against the Uyghurs and other minorities in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang constitute genocide.