This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, January 25th, 2021. I'm Caleb Brown.

On his way out of office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of genocide with respect to Uyghur Muslims. of

state Mike Pompeo accused China of genocide with respect to Uyghur Muslims there.

So how would this complicate relations between the US and China in working to handle

regional problems and how fair is that designation.

Cato's Eric Gomez and Mustafa Akyol discuss the designation and what it means for human rights and relations with China.

Eric, I want to start with you here. The way that you know what we know about the way

China has treated Uyghurs and other minority Muslim groups within the country is pretty devastating.

And it seems to me that an administration that prided itself on getting tough on China and also largely has a pro-life element in its ranks, a very strong

pro-life element in his ranks, you would think that that administration would have taken an action like this earlier.

One would have, wouldn't they. It is pretty surprising that it took the Trump

administration to like its last day in office to actually make this the

designation of what's happening in Xinjiang as a genocide and you

know gross violations of human rights especially given those propensities but I mean I think like with so many things in the

Trump administration what you heard wasn't always what you got and from the

reporting on this decision, it sounds like there was a lot of debate within the administration of prioritizing human rights versus getting a trade deal and the trade war with China being the main thing until COVID happened.

So I think that was why we didn't get it sooner.

But the Biden administration I think is going to

continue with the with the designation because Secretary of State nominee

Blinking when in front of the Senate just a day or two ago and he said yeah he supported that designation of a genocide happening

So I think it's here to stay I think that aspect of policy is here to stay for a while

All right Mustafa what has been the reaction to at least that if not this designation at least the China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslims.

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