In Indonesia, Mike Pompeo targeted China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority (File)
Jakarta:
China is the “most serious threat” to the future of religious freedom, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday in his latest verbal assault on Beijing on a blitz tour of Asia.
Pompeo made attacks on China the focus of his trip this week which began in India and included visits to Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia and, later Friday, Vietnam.
In Indonesia – which has the world‘s largest Muslim population – Pompeo has targeted China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
“The most serious threat to the future of religious freedom is the Chinese Communist Party’s war against people of all faiths: Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners,” Pompeo said in a speech Thursday to the large organization. Muslim Nahdlatul Ulama.
“The atheist Chinese Communist Party has tried to convince the world that its brutalization of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang is necessary to fight terrorism or reduce poverty,” he added.
Rights groups say more than a million Uyghurs languish in camps in the northwestern Xinjiang region as Beijing tries to forcibly integrate the community and root out its Islamic heritage.
China has denied the figures and described the camps as vocational training centers that teach skills to prevent the lure of Islamic radicalism after a series of attacks.
“But we know there is no justification against terrorism for forcing Uyghur Muslims to eat pork during Ramadan, or destroying a Muslim cemetery,” Pompeo said.
“There is no poverty reduction rationale for forced sterilizations or for removing children from their parents for re-education in state-run boarding schools.”
Pompeo rejected what he called Beijing’s “fantastic stories of happy Uighurs”.
“The Chinese Communist Party has tried to convince the Indonesians to look away from the torments that your fellow Muslims are undergoing … Search your hearts. Look at the facts,” he said.
“Think about what you know of how an authoritarian government treats those who resist its rule.”
China is Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and criticism in the Southeast Asian country over Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs has been hushed up.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
