By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 13: Following the United States report on human rights condemning China for its harsh treatment of religious and ethnic minorities, China on Thursday slammed the allegations of human rights violation.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the 2019 Human Rights Report at the Department of State in Washington where he called out authoritarian governments around the world including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, among others, for severe human rights “violations and abuses.”
Pompeo said that China is “imprisoning religious minorities in internment camps, part of its historic antipathy to religious believers” and that over a million Muslims in Xinjiang continue to be held in camps to further Beijing’s harsh policies to persecute the “religious and ethnic identities” of the people there.
The Secretary of State who is vocal critic of China further said that the government there has engaged in unlawful killings, forced disappearances, and detention as well as physical attacks and criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers and their family members.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the human rights report released by the U.S, urging the country to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. Chinese FM Spokesperson Geng Shuang on Thursday in Beijing said that his government is “firmly opposed” to Pompeo’s remarks which he said is full of “political lies and ideological prejudice”.
The Chinese government’s claim however, falls short as international observers such as Freedom House as recent as last month placed Tibet as the second least free nation on earth for the fourth year in a row. Only the country of Syria ravaged by war was placed less free. Tibet scored an astonishing 1 out of 100 in the aggregate score of the Freedom House index.
