The East Turkistan Government in Exile, which represents the majority Turkic population of the China-occupied Asian region, condemned President Joe Biden on Wednesday for failing to refer to China’s genocide of their people as a genocide during his speech that day at the United Nations General Assembly.
Biden addressed the platform a day late and dedicated most of his speech to the eight-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine. Towards the end of his speech, he mentioned China’s genocide in East Turkistan – using the Communist Party’s name for the region, Xinjiang – but did not describe it as “genocide.”
“Human rights are the basis for all that we seek to achieve. And yet today, in 2022, fundamental freedoms are at risk in every part of our world,” Biden said, “from the violations of — in Xinjiang detailed in recent reports by the Office of U.N. — U.S. — reports detailing by the U.S. [U.N.] High Commissioner, to the horrible abuses against pro-democracy activists and ethnic minorities by the military regime in Burma, to the increased repression of women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
Biden addressed U.S.-China policy elsewhere in his speech but not in relation to the Uyghur genocide.
