China’s foreign minister referred to outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a “doomsday clown” in response to Pompeo’s announcement that the US would be labeling China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims as genocide, according to the Associated Press.
Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said Wednesday that Pompeo’s accusations of mistreatment against Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region were “outright sensational pseudo-propositions and a malicious farce concocted by individual anti-China and anti-Communist forces represented by Pompeo,” the Associated Press reported.
“In our view, Pompeo’s so-called designation is a piece of wastepaper. This American politician, who is notorious for lying and deceiving, is turning himself into a doomsday clown and joke of the century with his last madness and lies of the century,” said Hua. (RELATED: Chinese Spokesperson Accuses Pompeo Of ‘Lying Diplomacy,’ Says He Has Tarnished US Reputation)
Tuesday’s announcement by Pompeo came on his last full day as Secretary of State and marks the first time a country has formally declared China’s treatment of the Uighurs “genocide.”
“For the past four years, this Administration has exposed the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and called it what it is: a Marxist-Leninist regime that exerts power over the long-suffering Chinese people through brainwashing and brute force. We have paid particular attention to the CCP’s treatment of the Uyghur people, a Muslim minority group that resides largely in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Western China,” Pompeo wrote in a statement on Tuesday. (RELATED: ‘Not Who America Is’: Mike Pompeo Blasts ‘Woke-ism, Multiculturalism’)
I have determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 19, 2021
Pompeo has long called for an end to China’s treatment of the Uighur people and in his statement, he cited the imprisonment, forced labor, torture, and sterilization as ongoing genocidal actions carried out by the Chinese government.