Arbitrary detention in the camps can
last from months to years without trial
or charge or contact with families. Those
who have been in the camps tell us that
detained individuals are required to
renounce their ethnic identities,
religious beliefs, cultural and religious
practices. Outside the camps Xinjiang
has been described as an open-air prison
for its Uighur and other Muslim
inhabitants.  They are subject to constant
random stops and searches, constrained in
observing peaceful religious practices
and speaking in their mother tongue, and
monitored everywhere by a pervasive
police presence that has grown
exponentially in the past two years.
These practices clearly contravene human
rights and fundamental freedoms,
including the right of freedom of
religion or belief. The Chinese
government has gone to great lengths to
propagate outright falsehoods regarding
the situation in Xinjiang. It contradicts
its own government documents which
acknowledge that the goal is to sinicize
and otherwise exert greater party
control over Islam and other religions,
and attempts to justify its actions
under the guise of preventing terrorism
and violent extremism. In reality China's
conflation of religious and ethnic
identity with terrorism and so-called
extremism is likely to fuel the very
resentment, recruitment and
radicalization to violence that it
claims it is seeking to avoid. Today the
United States calls on China to grant the
March 2019 request from the UN Special
Rapporteur on freedom of religion or
belief to visit Xinjiang and to grant
similar requests by other mandate
holders. Furthermore we call on China to
reverse its counterproductive policies
that conflate terrorism with peaceful
religious and ethnic expression or
identity, to release all those
arbitrarily detained, and to cease
efforts to coerce members of Muslim
minority groups residing abroad to
return to China to face an uncertain
fate. The United States will continue to
promote accountability for those who are
involved in human rights violations and
abuses including by considering targeted
measures against Xinjiang officials. The
United States urges all states to
refrain from forcibly repatriating
asylum seekers from Xinjiang back to
China in
accordance with their obligations under
international law and consistent with
the principle of non-refoulement.
