Just one day after now-former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo concluded China is, in fact, committing genocide against its Muslim minority, the communist country’s state-run media celebrated the end of President Donald Trump’s four-year term in office.
In a tweet posted just hours before the inauguration of now-President Joe Biden, China’s Xinhua News tweeted: “Good Riddance, Donald Trump!”
The nameless author of the accompanying commentary described the Trump years as “madness” and argued American politicians “have clearly overestimated their ability to influence the course of China-U.S. relations.”
Pompeo has been stern in his rebuke of China.
In addition to concluding President Xi Jinping’s regime is guilty of genocide, the former top diplomat has called out China for it’s “completely unlawful” territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Last week, the Trump administration placed travel bans on a host of Chinese officials and their families for what it claimed were clear violations of international standards regarding freedom of navigation in the disputed waters, the Associated Press reported. The State Department also added China’s oil company, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, to the list of companies with which U.S. citizens are banned from working.
“The United States stands with Southeast Asian claimant states seeking to defend their sovereign rights and interests, consistent with international law,” Pompeo said last week. “We will continue to act until we see Beijing cease its coercive behavior in the South China Sea.”
It’s worth noting Biden’s incoming secretary of state, Tony Blinken, agrees with Pompeo’s genocide designation.
During a hearing Tuesday with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Blinken told lawmakers, “That would be my judgement as well,” referring to his predecessor’s conclusion about what China is doing to the Uyghur Muslims. “I think we’re very much in agreement,” he added.
“Forcing men, women, and children into concentration camps, trying to, in effect, re-educate them to be adherents to the Chinese Communist Party — all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide,” Blinken explained.
Xinping’s regime has overseen the mass internment of Muslims, who have been forced into labor and have undergone forced sterilization.
It’s worth noting, too, however, that China looks poised to benefit from a Biden presidency.
Biden’s pick for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, told the Senate Intelligence Committee this week that the Biden administration intends to approach the Chinese Communist Party not as an adversary but as a “global competitor.”
And in December, Biden said the U.S. would be wrong to “punish” China for its deadly handling of the coronavirus, which resulted in a pandemic.
“My concern from the beginning — I’ve spoke about it, and I met with Xi more times than anybody had up until the time we left office that I’m aware of — is to make it real clear to China there are international rules that, if you want to play by, we’ll play with you,” he said. “If you don’t, we’re not going to play, number one. Number two, it’s not about punishing them for the COVID virus. It’s about insisting that there be international norms that are established that they play by.”