You know what’s happening in China’s Xinjiang region, right?
You’ve heard about the things Chinese authorities are doing there – all well-documented: mass wrongful detention, torture, enforced disappearances, mass surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, separation of families, forced labor, sexual violence… And you probably know this constitutes crimes against humanity.
Well, congratulations: you’re apparently more knowledgeable than EU and UK officials.
Because – knowing what you know – you would never agree to meet with Erkin Tuniyaz, the Chinese Communist Party deputy secretary in Xinjiang and chairman of the Xinjiang government, would you?
As EU and UK officials will be doing in the coming days, I mean…
Yes, Tuniyaz is slated to meet with UK officials in London next week and with EU officials in Brussels, February 19-21. It’s simply jaw-dropping that the EU and UK would agree to such meetings and allow Beijing to whitewash its atrocities with business-as-usual get-togethers.
Tuniyaz is a key figure in the abuses in Xinjiang. The US sanctioned him in December 2021 for his role.
Now, of course, you’re not really more knowledgeable than EU and UK officials. They know about China’s appalling abuses in Xinjiang just as well as you and I do. The EU and UK have even sanctioned a few other Xinjiang officials over it.
But if you would – rather than meet with Tuniyaz – add him to your sanctions list instead, then you are certainly smarter than they are.
Because you understand that failing to stand up to powerful dictatorships carries steep costs.
