Biden to Urge G7 Allies to Hold China Accountable for Human-Rights Abuses: Report
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President Biden and the six other world leaders participating in the G7 summit in England this weekend will shift the conversation Saturday to countering China’s growing international influence and holding it accountable for its human-rights violations. The conference includes leaders from the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
The nations are expected to sign on to a new investment initiative, called the “infrastructure bank,” to funnel billions in funding to support the economic development of smaller countries. A major condition of the effort would outlaw any use of forced labor.
On Sunday, the final day of the summit, Biden plans to lobby the leaders to firmly condemn China’s human-rights abuses and exploitation of forced labor in a unified voice, an anonymous senior administration official told reporters, according to the Associated Press.
“We’re pushing for being specific on areas like Xinjiang where forced labor is taking place,” the official said. In Xinjang specifically, a territory in northwest China, the Chinese regime has been accused of removing tens of thousands of Uyghur Muslim minorities from their homes and transferring them to factories across nine provinces for industrial purposes including electronics, textiles and automobiles. Since 2017, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has detained over 1.8 million Uyghur Muslims in reeducation camps.
“We think it’s critical to call out the use of forced labor,” the official noted, “and to take concrete actions to ensure the global supply chains are free from forced labor.”
The Chinese government has also reportedly conducted a forced-birth-control campaign, including forced sterilization and abortion, against Uyghur women to limit the group’s reproduction in a fashion reminiscent of China’s infamous “one-child policy.” The CCP has also used family separations and torture against these minority populations while denying claims of inhumane treatment or wrongdoing.
During a phone call Friday with a Chinese counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed an urgency to address what he called the “ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing” of Chinese minorities in Xinjiang, according to Reuters.
