UK lawmakers pass motion saying China committing genocide

LONDON (AP):

British lawmakers on Thursday approved a parliamentary motion declaring that China’s policies against its Uyghur minority population in the far western Xinjiang region amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.

The motion is non-binding and does not compel the British government to act. But it is another move signalling the growing outcry among UK politicians over alleged human rights abuses in China.

The motion was moved by Conservative lawmaker Nus Ghani, one of five British lawmakers recently sanctioned by China for criticising its treatment of the Uyghurs.

“There is a misunderstanding that genocide is just one act – mass killing. That is false,” she said, adding that all the criteria of genocide – an intention to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group – “are evidenced as taking place in Xinjiang”.

The US government and the parliaments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada have accused Beijing of genocide, although Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been reluctant to use the term.

More than one million people have been confined to camps in Xinjiang, according to foreign governments and researchers. Authorities there are accused of imposing forced labour, systematic forced birth control and torture in mass internment camps.