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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered a review to determine whether China’s repression of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang amounts to genocide, several officials and people familiar with the matter said, raising expectations that America’s top diplomat may charge China with committing genocide before he leaves office next month.

Pompeo has instructed Morse Tan, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for the Office of Global Criminal Justice, to oversee the internal review. The review would involve an assessment by the State Department’s acting legal advisor, Marik String, and the head of the State Department’s internal intelligence shop, as well as the department’s human rights and regional bureaus, according to current and former officials.

几位官员和知情人士说，美国国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥已下令进行审查，以确定中国对新疆维吾尔族的镇压是否构成种族灭绝，并提高了人们对美国最高外交官在卸任前可能对中国实施种族灭绝罪的指控。下个月。

庞培（Pompeo）已指示美国全球刑事司法办公室普通代表莫尔斯·谭（Morse Tan）监督内部审查。据现任和前任官员称，此次审查将包括国务院代理法律顾问马里克·斯特林（Marik String）和国务院内部情报部门负责人以及国务院人权与地区局的评估。

在美国议员和人权组织多年的压力下，这项审查可能引发美国的最终决定，它本身就是一个重要的象征性和外交信息。但是，人权专家说，即将卸任的特朗普和拜登卸任的政府决定做什么，以及何时做出决定，同样重要，甚至没有更多，因为这可能包括施加制裁或其他经济处罚。

官员们说，何时做出决定尚不清楚。如果在特朗普管理的最后几个星期做，它可以显著提高华盛顿和北京之间的紧张关系，正如总统当选人拜登进入办公室，虽然拜登的竞选已经使用“种族灭绝”一词来形容新疆的镇压早作为八月。

审查之际，双方立法者越来越呼吁特朗普政府对新疆的侵犯人权行为采取行动。10月，参议院外交关系委员会最高民主党人新泽西州参议员鲍勃·梅嫩德斯和得克萨斯州共和党议员约翰·科宁提出了两党决议，将中国对新疆的维吾尔族和其他少数民族的待遇定为种族灭绝。

美国很少宣布种族灭绝的正式声明，种族灭绝被认为是国际法中最严重的危害人类罪之一。如果得到确认，这将是美国国务院自2016年3月以来首次对种族灭绝，当时美国国务卿约翰·克里（John Kerry）确定伊斯兰国恐怖组织对该地区的Yazidi，基督教徒和什叶派穆斯林少数民族“负有种族灭绝责任”。2017年8月，唐纳德·特朗普总统的第一任国务卿雷克斯·蒂勒森（Rex Tillerson）也得出结论，伊斯兰国“肯定对种族灭绝负有责任”。

在乔治·W·布什（George W. Bush）政府任内，时任国务卿科林·鲍威尔（Colin Powell）宣布，苏丹政府对达尔富尔的少数民族实施了种族灭绝，这一决定随后是联合国安理会的一项决议，引发了国际社会对大规模暴行的调查。刑事法院后来起诉该国当时的总统奥马尔·巴希尔（Omar al-Bashir）种族灭绝。比尔·克林顿总统的国务卿沃伦·克里斯托弗还指出，波斯尼亚和卢旺达的大规模暴行是种族灭绝。

近年来，中国在安全和反恐计划的掩护下，对新疆西部据估计有数百万维吾尔族和其他少数族裔进行了全面镇压。人权组织报告说，维吾尔人正被拘留在大规模的拘留营中，面临着诸如强迫劳动，洗脑，任意拘留，虐待，酷刑，甚至被迫堕胎和绝育等人权侵犯。

中国政府一贯否认有任何不当行为，驳回了人权组织的报告，并声称拘留营是为了职业培训和打击极端主义。它拒绝了西方对其人权记录的批评，并谴责美国“干涉”其内政。

特朗普政府对参与运营拘留营的中国官员和涉嫌使用营地强迫劳动的指定公司实施了制裁。但是到目前为止，特朗普高级官员一直回避将新疆的镇压标记为种族灭绝。八月，政治 报（Poliitico）报导说，特朗普政府正在考虑此举，但直到现在还没有启动正式的确定程序。

The review could trigger a final determination from the United States, following years of pressure from U.S. lawmakers and human rights organizations, and would be a significant symbolic and diplomatic message by itself. But what the outgoing Trump and incoming Biden administrations decide to do if and when the determination is made matters as much, if not more, human rights experts said—as it could include imposing sanctions or other economic penalties.

Officials said the timing of when the determination will be made is unclear. If it is made in the final weeks of the Trump administration, it could significantly raise tensions between Washington and Beijing just as President-elect Joe Biden enters office—though Biden’s campaign already used the word “genocide” to describe the crackdowns in Xinjiang as early as August.

The review comes as lawmakers from both parties have increasingly called on the Trump administration to act over human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In October, Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, introduced a bipartisan resolution designating China’s treatment of the Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang as genocide.

The United States rarely makes a formal declaration of genocide, considered one of the most serious crimes against humanity in international law. If confirmed, this would be the first genocide determination by the State Department since March 2016, when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry determined that the Islamic State terrorist organization was “responsible for genocide” against the region’s Yazidi, Christian, and Shiite Muslim minorities. In August 2017, President Donald Trump’s first Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also concluded that the Islamic State was “certainly responsible for genocide.”

During the George W. Bush administration, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that the Sudanese government had committed genocide against ethnic minority groups in Darfur, a decision that was followed by a U.N. Security Council resolution triggering an investigation into mass atrocities by the International Criminal Court, which later charged the country’s then-president, Omar al-Bashir, with genocide. President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, Warren Christopher, also cited the mass atrocities in Bosnia and Rwanda as genocide.

In recent years, China has undertaken a sweeping campaign of repression against what are estimated to be millions of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in its western Xinjiang province under the guise of security and counterterrorism programs. Human rights groups have reported that Uighurs are being rounded up in mass internment camps and face human rights abuses such as forced labor, brainwashing, arbitrary detentions, mistreatment, torture, and even forced abortions and sterilization.

The Chinese government has consistently denied any wrongdoing, dismissing reports from human rights organizations and claiming the internment camps were for vocational training and countering extremism. It has rejected Western criticisms of its human rights records and rebuked the United States for “interfering” in its internal affairs.

The Trump administration levied sanctions against Chinese officials involved in running the detention camps and designated companies that allegedly used forced labor from the camps. But top Trump officials have so far shied away from labeling the crackdown in Xinjiang as a genocide. In August, Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering the move, but until this point hasn’t kickstarted the formal determination process.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/23

/pompeo-weighs-genocide-

designation-china-uighur-xinjiang/