'The dangers China poses to the free world cannot be ignored', Benedict Roger

It is time to investigate the alleged genocides and atrocity crimes and hold the perpetrators to account

The word “genocide” should never be thrown around loosely or carelessly. It has a very precise, legal definition.

According to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, it means acts committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Those acts include killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,” or “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Crucially, intent to destroy — in whole or in part — has to be proven. It doesn’t mean mass killing — but it does entail intention.

The crimes punishable under the 1948 Convention are genocide; conspiracy to commit genocide; direct and public incitement to commit genocide; attempt to commit genocide; and complicity in genocide.

Two weeks ago in Tokyo, at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, former United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback accused China of committing three genocides.

He repeated his accusation on X, writing: “There are currently three genocides underway in #China. The world must not turn a blind eye to this horrible suffering and lack of basic human rights under the #CCP. Democracies, especially those in the region, must stand strong.”

Sam Brownback is spot-on.

The three genocides he has in mind are the genocide of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region of China; the predominantly Buddhist Tibetans; and Falun Gong practitioners.

Only one of the three is currently talked of as a genocide officially — although it is disputed.

The United States government, under both the previous Trump administration and the current Biden administration, recognized the atrocities perpetrated against the Uyghurs as a genocide. The determination was made by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his last day in office, and embraced within hours by his successor, Antony Blinken.

An independent tribunal chaired by the British barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice, KC — who had prosecuted Slobodan Milosevic — reached the same conclusion.

Several parliaments around the world, including the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the European Parliament, and the United States Congress, have done so too.

But for the other two, while there may be less powerful legal recognition, the hallmarks of genocide are apparent.

In the case of Tibet, back in 1959 — just under a decade after China’s invasion of Tibet — the International Commission of Jurists concluded that the invasion and occupation was illegal and that there was a prima facie case of genocide.

Since then, over the past 65 years, the atrocities in Tibet have only continued and the repression only intensified. The growing body of evidence about the forcible transfer of at least a million Tibetan children into Chinese-run boarding schools, in which they are separated from their families, stripped of their culture and religion, restricted from speaking their language, and denied their Tibetan identity, strengthens the case.

One of the specific definitions of genocide is “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” If that’s not what is going on with China’s colonial boarding schools, please would someone explain what is?

And then there is the horrific persecution of Falun Gong, and in particular the barbaric practice of forced organ harvesting.

The relentless arrests, imprisonment and torture of Falun Gong practitioners — persecution that has gone on now for a quarter of a century — as well as the lies, misinformation and propaganda put out about Falun Gong by Beijing may fit into the category of “causing serious bodily or mental harm.”

The practice of forced organ harvesting potentially equals “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The independent China Tribunal in 2020 into forced organ harvesting, which Sir Geoffrey Nice, KC also chaired, did not reach a genocide designation but expressed no doubt that the practice of forced organ harvesting was taking place and that it amounts to a crime against humanity. In its judgment, the tribunal warned that anyone dealing with the Chinese state should remember that it is “a criminal state.”

As the United Kingdom has a new government, the European Union has a newly elected parliament, and later in the year the United States will have presidential and congressional elections, it is high time to re-examine these atrocities and demand action.

First, in the case of the Uyghurs, now that genocide has been recognized by the US administration, past and present, an independent tribunal, and several legislatures, what will be done to hold China to account? That is a question I posed to former Secretary Pompeo in Tokyo a fortnight ago, and you can watch his answer here.

On Tibet, it is absolutely vital that it does not get forgotten or sidelined. Tibet was the original laboratory for Beijing to experiment with its tools of repression and surveillance, and if we want to learn about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s mentality and modus operandi, we should study Tibet carefully.

The international community should also re-open the International Court of Justice’s 1959 inquiry. Perhaps the court itself, other international legal organizations, or the United Nations, should conduct an investigation into the atrocities in Tibet today.

And on Falun Gong — governments around the world should study the China Tribunal’s judgment, and perhaps a further investigation into the crime of genocide should be considered. At the very least, the China Tribunal’s conclusions and recommendations should be taken seriously and acted upon.

In addition to these three alleged genocides, there is an entire litany of other human rights horrors in China.

The severe persecution of Christians, the dismantling of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and autonomy in Hong Kong, repression in Southern Mongolia, and the crackdown on dissent across China all merit continuous monitoring, investigation, reporting, advocacy and action.

Unlike the plight of the Uyghurs, Tibetans and Falun Gong, these other grave human rights concerns may not yet reach the levels of “genocide” — but that is why action is needed now before they descend to even graver levels of atrocity crime.

There may be a case for amending the Genocide Convention, to include “political classes/groups” as a category alongside national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups. The former Soviet Union resisted this in 1948 (unsurprisingly as Stalin was eliminating political groups at the time). Both China and North Korea could legitimately be accused of it today. Policymakers and lawyers within the United Nations and its member states should give this serious consideration.

The world faces many challenges. Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, the war between Israel and Hamas, and multiple other local and regional crises. It is a world in turmoil today. But amidst the multitude of threats, the human rights crisis in China — and the dangers Beijing poses to the free world — cannot be ignored, especially when Beijing’s threats to Taiwan intensify.

It is time to investigate these three alleged genocides and atrocity crimes and hold the perpetrators to account.

This article was published in UCA News on 6 August 2024.