https://ift.tt/3sAhrtD
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also accused the Chinese Communist Party of “crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang." The alleged crimes date back to March 2017.
As federal officials prepare for US President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Pompeo took to social media Tuesday morning to declare that "woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they're not who America is."
"They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker," he argued. "Censorship, wokness, political correctness, it all points in one direction - authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness."
Many US-based netizens were perplexed and insulted by Pompeo's statement due to the fact that the US has long been referred to as a cultural "melting pot."
Lawmakers such as the outspoken Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) highlighted that the secretary of state recently thumbed his nose at international law when he visited the Golan Heights in November 2020.
Referring to the outgoing secretary as a "monster," Omar used her thread to highlight Pompeo's hand in Iran sanctions and closer relations with Saudi Arabia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova referred to the US secretary's move as "another manifestation of the United States' blatantly disdainful attitude to the globally recognised international legal principles of the Mideastern settlement."
In addition to his questionable comments on multiculturalism and the like, Pompeo also declared that, after a "careful examination of the available facts," China's policies in the western Xinjiang region amount to “crimes against humanity," according to the Associated Press.
“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China, under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party, has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state,” he said in a statement.
The new designation allows the state department to carry out new measures against Beijing at a swifter rate.
Grant Shubin of the Global Justice Center told the Associated Press that he views the last-minute Trump administration designation as a starting point that should be followed by "decisive action."
news
via Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Stories https://sputniknews.com
January 19, 2021 at 08:48PM