President Biden’s team is “reviewing” the Trump administration’s last-minute determination that Chinese abuse of the Uighurs amounts to genocide — despite Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s concurrence with his predecessor.
“The State Department is reviewing that now because all of the procedures were not followed,” United Nations Ambassador-designate Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her Wednesday nomination hearing. “I think they’re looking to make sure they are followed to ensure that that designation is held.”
Outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued the genocide determination on the day before Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. The recognition pleased long-suffering Uighur activists and secured bipartisan support — including from Blinken, who endorsed the assessment during his own confirmation hearing. He later reaffirmed that finding in his first media appearance as the top American diplomat.
“I haven’t actually seen what Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said, so I can’t comment on it,” Blinken told reporters at the State Department Wednesday afternoon. “My judgment remains that genocide is [being] committed against the Uighurs, and that hasn’t changed.”
The timing of Pompeo’s designation also irritated some Democratic foreign policymakers who foresee complications in the ramifications of the label.
“I agree with this in principle. But why wait till last day?” New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski wrote on Twitter at the time. “Sounds like Pompeo wants credit for calling out genocide, while punting to Biden the responsibility to build international consensus and figure out the immense consequences.”
I agree with this in principle. But why wait till last day?
Sounds like Pompeo wants credit for calling out genocide, while punting to Biden the responsibility to build international consensus and figure out the immense consequences. https://t.co/AYblvd5nnq
— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) January 19, 2021
Still, Blinken endorsed Pompeo’s finding during his nomination hearing earlier this month. “On the Uighurs, I think we’re very much in agreement.”
Chinese Communist repression of the Uighurs has emerged as a human rights controversy of historic scale, with the use of mass detention camps in particular drawing Holocaust comparisons at the State Department. “I believe this genocide is ongoing and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state,” Pompeo said on Jan. 19.
Thomas-Greenfield agreed that “what they’re doing is horrific” but avoided questions about the exact label until the conclusion of the new review, which drew a quizzical response from one administration’s ally.
“Your reticence on that answer wasn’t about a disagreement about this evidence, correct?” asked Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2016. “It’s just about making sure that we follow the process to do such a designation; am I right about that?”
“Absolutely, sir; what is happening with the Uighurs is horrendous, and we have to recognize it for what it is,” Thomas-Greenfield replied. “I lived through, and experienced, and witnessed a genocide in Rwanda. So I know what it looks like, and I know what it feels like. And this feels like that. We just have to call it for what it is.”
