Where Trump Went Right

On the day before Joe Biden was sworn in, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially declared that China “is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting [Uighur] Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” making the U.S. the first country to levy charges of genocide against China. Biden must not back down from this decision just because Trump made it and must press on with real action.

Currently, China is detaining at least one million Uighurs and other Muslim groups, such as ethnic Kazakhs, in Xinjiang in 380 detention camps without legal process. In these camps, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is cracking down on Islam by destroying mosques and conditioning prisoners to give up their culture. Detainees are to pledge to the Communist party and give up Uighur and other ethnic languages for Mandarin, and they are constantly monitored by cameras and microphones. They have also reported torture—not uncommon in China’s infamous prisons—and sexual abuse. Additionally, the CCP uses forced sterilization to decrease the Muslim population. On Twitter, China’s U.S. embassy callously boasted that Uighur women had been emancipated and were no longer “baby-making machines.” Uighurs are sent into forced labor for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and are mandated to produce cotton, hair products, garments, computer parts, and other goods.

China’s propaganda machine is incredibly effective at covering up, gaslighting their citizens and the world into denying its validity entirely. My parents, who still consume mostly Chinese media, view any accusation of genocide as Western propaganda. Unfortunately, it’s challenging to counter China’s narrative. The information we do have is extremely limited, coming from satellite cameras and refugee testimony. To justify its re-education camps, China cites Islamic extremism from past Uighur attacks and neighboring countries like Afghanistan. U.S. charges of genocide to China’s attempts to wipe out the Uighurs could bring transparency to the situation and call for other countries to act.

China is already ready to pin Pompeo’s accusation as another questionable foreign policy position of Trump’s administration, like that on Myanmar and Saudi Arabia, and has already placed sanctions on Trump. However, his failures should not take away from the victory of a formal declaration from the U.S. of the genocide in Xinjiang. America is still a major global power and China’s largest trading partner by far. Pompeo’s declaration of genocide forces Biden to take action and live up to the position he took in August.

The contrast between the attention the Uighur situation receives on the news and social media, with major human rights groups pushing for change and the inaction on the global stage, shows the cynical nature of geopolitics. In 2019, 22 mostly European countries came to the United Nations to rally against China regarding Xinjiang, only to be opposed by 37 others, among them Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, showing how even Islamic countries are subject to the economic and political weight of China. Even Trump waited three years to make a meaningful comment on Xinjiang due to Chinese trade deals. We must celebrate any progress toward a world of compassion and peace. I wish that America would comment on behalf of Uighurs and care for their human suffering, but we are far away from that world. Until then, small victories will have to suffice.

Biden needs to continue to improve previous policies with China. Though the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act to boycott Chinese products made in Xinjiang last year is stalled in the Senate, it is difficult to track where companies are getting their resources from due to the complications of supply chains. Biden can counteract with authoritative identifiers and DNA tests on products. For agricultural goods such as cotton, a DNA test can be used to see if the crop came from Xinjiang. Unique serialization numbers for products to identify places of origin that currently do not exist in supply chains should be enforced to make the act worthwhile. Additional sanctions on China coordinated with other countries can also cause China to reverse its course in Xinjiang. Biden would have to confront Disney about its use of Xinjiang in the Mulan remake and Nike about where its materials come from. However, Biden should not go in alone like Trump but rather seek the support of most of the European Union. International pressure has worked on China before, causing them to back down from supporting Sudan during the Darfur Genocide in 2003. China’s business loss in Xinjiang would greatly hurt it due to the economic importance of the region as China’s largest producer of natural gas. Finally, the U.S. can crack down on the 2022 Beijing Olympics, an event that China takes seriously, given the gains it received in the 2008 Olympics.

Ultimately, we cannot let the bad actions of the Trump administration stop us from interfering with the Uighur genocide.