Following the international backlash over human rights abuses reported in Xinjiang province, Chinese officials are trying to reverse the blame by shedding light on slavery.
At a news conference Thursday at the Chinese embassy in Washington, Chinese spokeswoman Hua Chunying deflected questions about recent boycotts of well-known brands such as Nike, Adidas and H&M after the U.S., under President Trump, ban Xinjiang cotton imports in January.
“On the issue of ‘forced labor’, the allegations against Xinjiang made by some Western countries, including the United States, are based entirely on lies,” Hua told reporters on Thursday.
“Here’s a picture of black slaves forced to work in U.S. cotton fields,” Hua told reporters, who came prepared with photos. “Here is another picture of the cotton fields in China’s Xinjiang, where more than 70 percent of the cotton is harvested by machines. There is never ‘forced labor’ when it comes to harvesting cotton in Xinjiang. “
“Some are dedicated to linking [job opportunity] with forced labor and oppression because they have done it themselves for hundreds of years in history, ”he continued. “They presume the behavior of others according to their own experience.”
China has recently developed a defense tactic to try to reverse allegations of oppression against it by raising issues of American social justice.
A senior Chinese diplomat criticized the US during a disputed US-China summit in Alaska, saying “there are many human rights issues in the United States” and called the “Black Lives” issue a “deep” issue. .
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken noted the abuses reported in Hong Kong, Taiwan and against the Uighurs, an ethnically Muslim minority group in Xinjiang.
The highlight of slavery in the United States comes after the United States, along with other Western countries, imposed new sanctions on the People’s Republic of China (Human Republic of China) on human rights violations committed against the Uighurs.
President Biden himself has not classified the PRC’s abuses as genocide, but in a statement on Monday, Blinken accused China of continuing to “commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”