U.S. human rights report documents China's "genocide" in Xinjiang
30 March 2021
The U.S. accused China of carrying out an ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in an annual human rights report released on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Introducing the report, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said President Biden would put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy in dealing with friends and foes alike. He also announced that an effort to redefine human rights by his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, would be disbanded.
- Pompeo’s “Commission on Unalienable Rights” had elevated values like religious freedom and over others, like LGBTQ and reproductive rights. Blinken said the Biden administration would “repudiate” such "unbalanced statements.”
- He also acknowledged that the U.S. had “work to do at home” on human rights, including in combating systemic racism, but would face those challenges “in the daylight,” unlike autocratic countries.
What they’re saying: Blinken highlighted human rights violations last year by the governments of Russia, Uganda, Venezuela and Belarus, as well as abuses by the warring parties in Ethiopia and Yemen.
- “The trendlines on human rights continue to move in a negative direction… in every region of the world,” Blinken said.
Zoom in: The report finds that more than one million mainly Muslim Uyghurs were held in detention camps in China’s Xinjiang region, with some subjected to forced sterilization, rape, forced labor and torture.
- Another two million Uyghurs were “subjected to daytime-only ‘re-education training,’” according to the report.
- The report notes that the camps were expanded in 2020, and the abuses are ongoing.
- Of note: The Trump administration, in its final days in office, declared China's actions against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang a "genocide."
Go deeper:Read the full State Department report.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.