U.S. Ambassador Gilmore Condemns Chinese Detentions of Uyghur Muslims
PRESS RELEASE | September 3, 2020
Vienna – U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) James S. Gilmore warned of Chinese aggression and human rights violations occurring on “the OSCE’s doorstep.” Speaking at the OSCE Permanent Council in response to presentations by the OSCE’s Asian Partners for Cooperation, Gilmore decried the “egregious large-scale human rights violations and abuses occurring in Xinjiang, China.” He called upon OSCE member states to “take note of the atrocities being perpetrated against the Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in the People’s Republic of China,” stating that the Chinese in Xinjiang were curbing people’s rights to practice their own religion and express their own culture. Chinese methods of coercion against the Uyghurs included such practices as “forced abortion, involuntary birth control, sterilization of women, and state-sponsored forced labor.”
Gilmore went on to caution OSCE states and the Organization’s Asian Partners that they need to carefully examine PRC offers of cooperation with their Belt and Road Initiative and consider where the products they are importing from China may be coming from. The Ambassador stated that there are “reputational, economic, legal, and other risks for procuring goods from entities engaging in human rights abuses” and countries could be implicated by importing “goods sourced in Xinjiang, or from factories elsewhere in China implicated in the forced labor of individuals from Xinjiang.”
The Ambassador concluded by warning that some OSCE participating States, as well as some OSCE Asian Partners, are falling prey to China’s predatory lending practices, largely due to “the absence of more trustworthy alternatives.” To address this need, the United States, Australia, and Japan joined forces to create the Blue Dot Network, an initiative that improves “the underlying business climate and generates more trade, investment, and growth, without the sacrifice of safety, security, and having to give in to predatory lending.”
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For further details, please contact:
U.S. Mission to the OSCE
G. Michael Snyder, Counselor for Public Affairs
Email: SnyderGM[at]state.gov
