China hit back a U.S. and EU economic sanctions for its treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, rejecting accusations that it’s abusing the ancient minority group along the Silk Road in Western China. After humiliated in the March 18 summit in Anchorage, Alaska by 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, China finally dished some of its own medicine. Blinken and Sullivan blindsided the Chinese delegation led by senior diplomat Yang Jiechi, accusing China of human rights abuses against Uyghurs, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, and relations with Taiwan, something the Peoples Republic of China rejects as an independent sate. China had it up to their eyeballs with Blinken and Sullivans’s insults, telling the U.S. delegation that no country can lecture on human rights when it slaughters its black citizens.
President Joe Biden, 78, has made every mistake in the book when it comes to Russia and China, accusing both countries of widespread human rights abuses. Instead of sticking to business, Blinken and Sullivan used the get-to-know-you summit as a forum for invectives, exactly the wrong approach with adversaries like Russia and China. Reacting to China’s retaliatory sanctions, Blinken said sanctions “only contribute to the growing international scrutiny of the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. We stand in solidarity with Canada, the U.K. and EU, and other partners and allies around the world in calling on the [China] to end the human rights violations and abuses,” Blinken said, throwing gasoline on the fire. China resents the U.S. accusation of genocide against Uyghurs, where they’ve cracked down on Islamic extremism in Xinjiang province.
Blinken and Sullivan think they’re leading a grand coalition against China, when, in fact, few countries agree with the bellicose rhetoric that has turned U.S. and EU relations with China on its head. No one in the EU or other so-called allies of the U.S. want to alienate China at a time of pandemic and economic upheaval. While there’s been some improvement in the global economy, the U.S. and EU are still in recession, requiring draconic central bank intervention. China has rejected Blinken’s accusations of “genocide,” insisting that whatever issues exist with Muslim Uyghurs, it’s an internal matter, not one for global intervention. No one has accused China of “genocide” other the U.S. Whether or not China has detained up to a million Uyghurs in work and reeducation camps, that’s certainly not genocide by anyone’s definition, prompting stern objections from China.
China hit American religious rights groups and a Canadian lawmaker with sanctions over the dispute over Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Canadian opposition lawmaker Michael Chong Vice-Chair of the parliaments Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development and its Subcommittee on International Human Rights that recently published a paper on China’s mistreatment of Uyghurs. China also sanctioned Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins, Chair and Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In case Blinker hasn’t noticed, China does not have a declaration of religious freedom in the Communist Party’s constitution. China also hit Hong Kong and Macau citizens from doing business in Mainland China, for fomenting revolution in the once British Crown colony. Blinken’s criticisms of China have backfired, causing a far bigger global crisis.
China’s Foreign Minister demands that the U.S. and its allies must cease-and-desist in what it calls political manipulation in Xinjiang province, an internal matter for the Chinese government. “The Chinese government is firmly determined to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and developing interests, and urges the relevant parties to clearly understand the situation and redress their mistakes,” said China’s Foreign Ministry. Blinken and Sullivan under Biden’s direction stirred up a hornet’s nest, requiring the U.S. to admit its mistakes and correct them. “They must stop political manipulation on Xinjiang-related issues, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form and refrain from going farther down the wrong path. Otherwise, they will get their fingers burnt,” said the Foreign Ministry. Why Biden has chose confrontation against Russian and China is anyone’s guess.
U.S., EU, U.K. and Canadian officials have nothing to gain and everything to lose taking on the Uyghur’s battle. When it comes to Russia, Biden has pushed things to the brink over 44-year-old incarcerated dissident Alexi Navanlny, someone viewed by the Kremlin as a Ttrotskyite revolutionary, seeking to overthrow the Russian government. When you look at the Covid-19 global pandemic, the last thing the world needs was confrontations with Russia and China. Whatever differences over human rights, the U.S., EU, U.K. and Canada needs to show more patience and respect for differences in political systems in Russia and China. Unless the U.S. can show proof of genocide, Blinken should not throw around those term so loosely. China and Russia’s sanctions against the West could get a lot worse, resulting in embargos, especially to the European Union, buying 40% of its energy from Russia.
