Beijing [China]: The ignorance of the ongoing genocide of humanity by the Chinese Communist Party in China’s Xinjiang where millions of Uyghurs live, undermines the goals of creating a tradeoff between climate goals and human rights, cites an opinion piece in a US newspaper. In July, more than 40 progressive groups had urged US President Joe Biden to stop demonizing China as it “risks undermining much-needed climate cooperation”, reported an opinion piece written by Louisa Greve published in The Hill. However, the White House rejected such a tradeoff in its readout on the US-China talks in Switzerland in October highlighting that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “raised a number of areas where we have concern with the PRC’s actions,” that included the Uyghur crisis and human rights. The Uyghur forced labour bill that would ensure that goods made with Uyghur forced labour and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the Uyghur region do not enter the US market is still stuck, said the news piece. The House passed the bill by a 400-vote margin in the last Congress and the Senate passed it unanimously in July, however, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on October 6 that she did not know the position of the White House on the bill. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in April that trusting China’s climate change promises would be “stupid and malpractice”, said the opinion piece. China’s attitude towards the environment has historically been of many words and little action. President Biden has been outspoken on China’s human rights abuses against minorities. The President coordinated the first-ever joint sanctions on Chinese government officials over CCP’s human rights abuses imposed in March by the UK, EU, Canada and the US, said Louisa Greve in the opinion piece. The move gained praise from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the sanctions were a part of the US commitment to counter China’s abuses multilaterally, as it “continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity”, said the opinion piece. The efforts of the previous administration to prevent Chinese solar equipment made with Uyghur forced labour from entering the U.S. market has been continued by the Biden administration which banned the imports from a major Chinese solar exporter for using forced labour. Restricting the imports of Chinese solar is not only a human rights issue but also a climate change issue, opined Louisa Greve.
