China’s increased repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is “emblematic of the worsening human rights situation under President Xi Jinping,” sparking a mounting backlash from the global community, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday in an annual report issued the same day the United States banned all cotton imports from the XUAR over forced labor concerns.
The crackdown in the XUAR—where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017—as well as severe restrictions in Hong Kong and an initial coverup of the coronavirus that contributed to a global pandemic, “have generated growing international mobilization against Beijing’s rights record,” HRW said in its World Report 2021.
“Governments increasingly realize that Beijing’s rights abuses at home have global consequences,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at HRW. “That momentum should translate into support for independent investigations into Xinjiang, a new United Nations mandate to monitor human rights abuses, and an end to the Chinese government’s impunity for serious violations.”
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