The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., sent an angry email to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) condemning his recent proposal to sanction Chinese President Xi Jinping for human rights violations in the country.
The letter, written by Chinese Embassy counselor Li Xiang on Monday, claimed Hawley’s proposal was “arrogant and despicable” and sought to interfere with the relationship between the leaders of China’s Communist Party and the Chinese people.
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“Senator Hawley is trying to smear the 20th CPC National Congress and the leadership of the CPC,” Li wrote. “To divide the relationship between the CPC and the Chinese people, and even dare to claim to ‘sanction’ China’s top leadership, which are blatantly working against the more than 96 million Party members and the 1.4 billion Chinese people, and are pure wishful thinking and will get nowhere.”
Li denounced Hawley’s accusation that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs, a Muslim and Turkish ethnic group that lives in China, claiming Uyghurs are now enjoying “rapidly rising living standards” and “freedom of religious beliefs and religious harmony.” Li also rejected a report from the United Nations that found China had inflicted serious human rights violations on the population.
“The Chinese side urges Senator Hawley to abandon the Cold-War zero-sum mentality and ideological prejudice against China,” Li said. “Look at CPC and Chinese government’s Xinjiang policy correctly. Stop the advancement of this bill. Stop any attack and smear against CPC and Chinese leadership. Stop any action to undermine China’s sovereignty and security, and stop moving even further down the wrong and dangerous path.”
Hawley refused to retract his proposed sanctions.
“Somebody’s sensitive: after I proposed sanctioning Xi personally for the CCP genocide against the Uyghurs, Beijing lost its marbles, called the Uyghurs terrorists and demanded I retract the bill. Not going to happen,” Hawley tweeted.
Last week, the Missouri Republican introduced legislation that would sanction Chinese leaders for being complicit in the genocide of China’s Uyghur population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The letter also followed the conclusion of the National Congress in China during which Xi won an unprecedented third five-year term as China’s leader.
“While Joe Biden is distracted, Xi Jinping is rapidly consolidating power within the Chinese Communist Party, power he intends to use to compel the world to turn a blind eye to the crimes of his regime,” Hawley said. “But we must not look away. We must hold Xi and his lieutenants accountable for their crimes against humanity and we can start by imposing real costs for their complicity in the atrocities in Xinjiang.”
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China and the United States have faced heightened tension over the U.S.’s relationship with Taiwan, which China claimed was the “wrong policy,” adopted by President Donald Trump and continued by President Joe Biden.
