State Department report charges China with genocide, arbitrary killings, disappearances

China’s communist government engaged in “genocide and crimes against humanity” involving minority and religious groups, according to the State Department’s annual report on human rights.

The genocide involved Muslim Uyghurs in western China and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, the westernmost province.

Despite critics who say the latest report may have watered down human rights abuses in nations friendly to the United States, the report continued its harsh assessment of Beijing’s abuses.

“Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices; arbitrary arrest and detention by the government including, since 2017 of more than one million Uyghurs and members of other predominantly Muslim minority groups in extrajudicial internment camps, prisons,” the annual report stated.

An additional unknown number of people were subjected to “re-education” training and acts of transnational repression against individuals in other nations.

China also imposes serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests and criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others, and restrictions on internet freedom.

Religious repression involves restrictions of religious freedom and the report also noted instances of coerced abortions and forced sterilization, despite China’s new policy of seeking to promote population growth, the report said.

China is also involved in human trafficking and forced labor, including “some of the worst forms of child labor,” the report said.

The Beijing government failed to take steps or action to identify or punish officials linked to the widespread human rights abuses.

Chinese state media said the report “baselessly criticizes China” regarding genocide in Xinjiang.

“If the U.S. administration truly cares about the human rights of Muslims, why does it turn a blind eye to the hell on earth in Gaza?” the outlet China Daily said.

The latest report was restructured to remove redundancy, increase readability and respond to legislative mandates, the State Department said in releasing the report this week.

The new report is no longer an “expansive list of politically biased demands and assertions,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

On the subject of extrajudicial killings, the report said reports had surfaced alleging government agents committed arbitrary and unlawful killings last year.

In one case in Xinjiang, a Chinese media report that was quickly censored after publication last year, stated that eight Xinjiang police officers were on trial for the torture and ultimate death of Sun Renze, a private citizen, while in police custody in 2018.

Video surveillance reportedly documented the torture of the victim, including waterboarding and other physical abuse.

The report said there were also other deaths of people in official custody in Xinjiang in mass internment camps.

China’s government has denied it is engaged in genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

The State Department initially declared the genocide in 2021.

China also engaged in coercive population control in 2024. Married couples are limited to three children, up from two allowed in 2021.

A fourth child can be permitted if couples meet government requirements.

In a section on war crimes and crimes against humanity, the report identified “deradicalization” programs in Xinjiang that use a broad definition of extremism to imprison more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in re-education or detention centers.

The forced re-education programs seek to instill patriotism and erase local religious, cultural, and ethnic identities.

Many of the victims held in these centers were later moved to prisons after convictions based on what the report said were spurious charges in closed trials that resulted in long prison terms.

China’s government also “promoted racism and institutional discrimination against minorities, in particular Uyghurs, and disparaged and denied the resulting complaints, cracking down on peaceful expressions of ethnic culture and religion,” the report said.

China also denies freedom of speech, press and assembly despite constitutional guarantees.

Chinese Communist Party authorities maintained tight control over all print, broadcast, electronic and social media and regularly used them to propagate government views and CCP ideology.

Extensive censorship is also imposed on all media, especially around anniversaries such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and China’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Violations of the CCP’s strict censorship, monitored by extensive electronic monitoring, resulted in punitive measures for people and their families.

One Chinese newspaper editor, Dong Yuyu, was imprisoned for seven years on espionage charges after meeting a Japanese diplomat in a hotel.

“Authorities arrested or detained countless citizens for ‘spreading fake news,’ ‘illegal information dissemination,’ or ‘spreading rumors online,’” the report said.

“These claims ranged from sharing political views or promoting so-called religious extremism to sharing factual reports on public health concerns.”