China condemned remarks Pope Francis made concerning the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in his new book, Let Us Dream.
“People of all ethnic groups enjoy the full rights of survival, development, and freedom of religious belief,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing, according to ABC News. He added that Francis’s statement had “no factual basis at all.”
In his book, Francis included “poor Uighur” among those who have been persecuted for their faith.
“I think often of persecuted peoples,” the pope wrote. “The Rohingya, the poor Uyghurs, the Yazidi — what ISIS did to them was truly cruel — or Christians in Egypt and Pakistan killed by bombs that went off while they prayed in church.”
The remarks are the first time the pope has made a public statement about China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims.
The U.S. State Department has said that as many as two million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities, particularly in the Xinjiang province, have been moved into reeducation and detention camps in China. There, Uighurs are allegedly put through rigorous “deradicalization” programs and are mocked and tortured by Chinese guards. Documents from the Chinese Communist Party show that the party has conducted mass forced sterilization of Uighur women, forced abortions, and mandatory birth control measures to reduce the Uighur population.
Though China has acknowledged a nearly one-third drop in birth rates in Xinjiang between 2017 and 2018, it has denied reports of genocide and forced sterilization, according to CNN. After initially denying their existence, Beijing claimed the “reeducation camps” are voluntary and provide vocational training to the Uighur Muslims.
Lijian did not mention the camps in his remarks about Francis’s book.
Francis’s remarks are a far cry from the action U.S. politicians and the State Department have requested from the Vatican. Sens. Todd Young and Tim Kaine sent a letter to the pope last month urging the Holy See to confront the Chinese Communist Party on its treatment of Uighur Muslims ahead of the renewal of an agreement that allows Chinese officials to appoint bishops in the country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a similar request in September.
