Strongly rejecting the genocide accusation in Xinjiang province as a “thorough lie” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Sunday, March 7, that it is a rumor propagated by certain countries with ulterior motives. Addressing a press meet on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Chinese People’s Congress in Beijing, he also urged for greater cooperation among world’s nations in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wang Yi presented a list of facts to counter the myth of genocide of Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang, pointing out that the population of the province has increased from 5.5 million to 12 million in the last 40 years and the GDP of the region has grown over 200 percent in the same period.
Wang Yi said, when people speak of genocide, they “would have in their minds the native Americans of the 16th century, African slaves of the 19th century, the Jewish people of the 20th century and the aboriginal Australians who are still struggling even today,” Xinhua reported.
Several western media organizations have accused the Chinese state of committing genocide of minority ethnic community of Uyghur in its Xinjian province. Last month the UK raised the issue in the UN Human Rights Council’s meeting. The US too has raised the issue on different forums. Wang Yi had earlier rejected the claims made by the UK and had invited foreign delegates including the UN human rights panel to visit the region.
Speaking to the media, Wang Yi also urged the Biden administration in the US to shun the “dangerous practice” adopted by its predecessor in Taiwan and open the doors for cooperation. Though the US does not have any formal diplomatic relation with Taiwan, the Donald Trump administration did conduct diplomatic maneuvers by sending some high-ranking officials to the island which China considers to be its part. The US under Trump also decided to sell billions of dollars worth of arms to Taiwan.
Claiming that China has already provided COVID-19 vaccines to 69 developing countries for free while exporting it to 43 countries, he said that it intends to up the scale of international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic and set up vaccination stations abroad. According to Wang Yi, China has carried out its largest international humanitarian operation since 1949 during the pandemic and called for the rejection of “vaccine nationalism” followed by most of the rich countries to hoard vaccine at a time when the majority of poor and developing countries have not got even a single dose of it.
