Top US official asks China to take immediate action to end ongoing repression on Uyghurs

He made the remark on the second anniversary of the release of a report by the United Nations marking the state of human rights violations in Xinjiang region of China.

Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson, posted on X: "Two years since the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released an assessment on human rights violations in Xinjiang, the U.S. continues to urge the PRC to take immediate action and end the ongoing repression of Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups."

In a separate statement, Miller said: " The United States is disappointed that after two years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to reject the OHCHR assessment’s findings and refuses to implement the High Commissioner’s recommendations to release all those arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, cease all intimidation and reprisals against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and abroad, and investigate allegations of human rights abuses, including torture, sexual violence, forced labor, and forced medical treatment."

He said: " The United States remains gravely concerned by the PRC’s ongoing repression of predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, which the High Commissioner’s assessment found 'may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity'."

He said: "We will continue to work closely with partners across the international community to seek justice for the many victims of PRC policies in Xinjiang and to secure accountability for individuals and entities perpetrating human rights violations and abuses."

The report released by the  Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) had concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.

The report said that “allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”

In a strongly-worded assessment at the end of the report, OHCHR said that the extent of arbitrary detentions against Uyghur and others, in context of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

Human Rights Watch said the Chinese government persists in committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang while denying repression there.

“Beijing’s brazen refusal to meaningfully address well-documented crimes in Xinjiang is no surprise, but shows the need for a robust follow-up by the UN human rights chief and UN member states,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “Contrary to the Chinese government’s claims, its punitive campaign against millions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang continues to inflict great pain.”