Thread by @andreasmoun

The #Eagle and the #Dragon at crossroads - Thread

The #Chinese government has targeted the #Uighur people with coercive birth control and sterilization practices, according to Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the president of the #Uighur Tribunal and a notable human rights lawyer.

China has warned the United States that any "reckless" acts will be met with "retaliation," pushing Washington to drop penalties on people and entities linked to China's human rights violations.

The warning comes after the United States issued broad human rights sanctions on Chinese individuals and entities, namely artificial intelligence firm Sense Time.

The US announced sweeping human rights charges against Chinese individuals and entities, as well as those linked to Myanmar, North Korea, and Bangladesh. The sanctions, according to China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, are "perverse actions."

“We urge the US to immediately withdraw the relevant wrong decision and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and harming China’s interests” “If the US acts recklessly,

China will take effective measures to strike back resolutely,”Wang said during a news conference in Beijing.

During a recent visit to the Indo-Pacific, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also warned China to

stop "aggressive measures" in the neighbouring Indo-Pacific region.
After the turbulence and instability of the Donald Trump era, President Joe Biden's government is attempting to repair and restore relations to re-establish its influence in Asia.

Washington is also trying to strengthen alliances against Beijing.Blinken made these remarks while on the Southeast Asian tour, the latest top US official to visit the area in recent months.

Blinken said the US will work with friends and partners to "protect the rules-based system" and those nations should be able to "pick their course" in a speech detailing the US policy to the Indo-Pacific.

According to him, Beijing's aggressive measures are causing so much alarm. "Taking control of the broad seas. Subsidies to its state-owned enterprises distort open markets. Denying exports or terminating agreements with countries whose policies it disagrees with."

During his address at the University of Indonesia, he added that countries around the region want this behaviour to change and so does the U.S

He went on to say that Washington was dedicated to ensuring freedom of passage in the South China Sea and that Beijing's activities there threatened the annual flow of more than $3 trillion in trade.

According to Blinken, it's not about a competition between a US-centric zone and a China-centric region, the Indo-Pacific region is for common good, and Washington wants to prevent any form of war there.

China claims practically the whole resource-rich South China Sea, with four Southeast Asian governments and Taiwan making conflicting claims.
Beijing has been accused of installing anti-ship and anti-surface-to-air missiles in the area, despite a 2016

international tribunal judgement declaring Beijing's historical claim to most of the seas to be unfounded.
Friction between the US and China have intensified and because of China's claim to Taiwan, it has promised to reclaim Taiwan as its territory one day, by force if necessary

Countries in the area are finding it more difficult to maintain good ties with both Beijing and Washington, both crucial commercial partners, which is critical for the stability and security of this region.

The US-China relationship has gone downhill on several fronts, including cybersecurity, technological superiority, as well as human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
The penalties in the latest line of steps timed to coincide with Biden's two-day virtual Summit for Democracy,

during which he outlined initiatives to strengthen democracy throughout the world and aid for pro-democracy laws in the US. The sanctions, according to China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, are "perverse actions."

According to Wang, China is resolute in its will to preserve national sovereignty, security, and development interests. He also backed Beijing's attitude toward the Muslim Uighur community in the autonomous province of Xinjiang, claiming that the country is committed

to "fighting violence, terrorism, separatism, and religious extremist elements." And that The U.S' nefarious pursuits will not be able to change the overall form of Xinjiang's growth, let alone halt China's advancement, or reverse the historical trend.

The Chinese artificial intelligence company Sense Time was among those sanctioned by the US Treasury, which accused it of developing face recognition programs that can establish a target's ethnicity, with a special focus on identifying ethnic Uighurs.

More than a million individuals, mostly Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been arrested or imprisoned in a huge system of camps in Xinjiang in recent years, according to UN experts and rights groups.

The Chinese government also perpetrated genocide, crimes against humanity, and brutality against Uighurs and other minorities, according to an unofficial and impartial tribunal established in the United Kingdom.

The Chinese government has targeted the Muslim Uighur people with coercive birth control and sterilization practices, according to Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the president of the Uighur Tribunal and a notable human rights lawyer.

Beijing denies human rights violations in Xinjiang, but the US government and several human rights organizations claim China is committing genocide there.

Meanwhile, Wang has slammed the US-hosted Democracy Summit, claiming that Washington cannot determine whether a country is democratic or not using its criteria. According to him, the Summit for Democracy has exposed the United States' true nature as a killer of

democracy while removing its mask as a protector. He urged all nations to work together to address global concerns and to continue establishing a society with a common destiny for humanity.

He also slammed the fines imposed on SenseTime, claiming that the decision was made based on falsehoods and misleading facts.

The firm said that it will postpone a $767 million Hong Kong IPO after the US placed it on a no-fly list amid allegations of genocide in Xinjiang. A blacklisting would make it very difficult for US investment banks, who are often involved in Hong Kong listings, to participate in

the offering, or for a US citizen to invest.
Footnotes:
•China warns US it will ‘strike back’ for ‘reckless’ sanctions | Politics News | Al Jazeera
•US China, China Indo Pacific, China Actions: US Warns China Against "Claiming Open Seas As Their Own" In Indo-Pacific (ndtv)