US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday (September 1st) welcomed the UN report on alleged human rights violations in China's Xinjiang region, demanding that Beijing be held accountable for this "
genocide
".
"
This report reinforces and reaffirms our serious concerns about the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Chinese authorities
" against the Muslim Uyghur minority, Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Read alsoChina: the UN denounces possible “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang
Despite pressure from Beijing, which strongly denounced the report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published this long-awaited report on the situation in Xinjiang on Wednesday evening.
The UN report mentions the possibility of “
crimes against humanity
” in the region but does not speak expressly of genocide.
“
We will continue to hold the Chinese authorities to account and call on them to release all those held without justification... and to allow unrestricted access to independent investigators in Xinjiang, Tibet, and through China
, ”said the head of American diplomacy.