Leaked docs confirm China rights breach of Uighurs: US

WASHINGTON

Recently leaked documents that debunked the Chinese government's dealing in autonomous Xinjiang region confirm human rights violations against Uighurs, the top U.S. diplomat said Tuesday. 

"We've all seen the Xinjiang papers released in recent days. They detailed Chinese party's brutal detention in systematic repression of Uighurs and other members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang," State Secretary Mike Pompeo told a news conference.

Pompeo was referring to the so-called China Cables that were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a U.S-based donor-funded reporting outlet.

The files "include a classified list of guidelines" approved by top Chinese officials for running camps and a “massive data collection and analysis system that uses artificial intelligence” to help round up suspect Xinjiang residents, said ICIJ reporter Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian.

"These reports are consistent with overwhelming and growing part of evidence the Chinese communist party is committing human rights violations and abuses against individuals in mass detentions," said Pompeo.

Earlier this month, another trove of Chinese government documents leaked to the New York Times daily revealed details about Beijing’s fears about religious extremism and its wholesale crackdown on Uighurs.

The U.S. calls on the Chinese government to "immediately release all of those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorized its own citizens in Xinjiang," said Pompeo.

As many as 1 million people, or about 7% of Xinjiang’s Muslim population, have been incarcerated in a sprawling network of "political re-education" camps, according to U.S. and UN studies.

Last September, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Beijing of a "systematic campaign of human rights violations" against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Beijing says its camps in Xinjiang are "vocational training centers."