“What’s not clear is just how Biden plans to pressure Beijing. “The Biden administration has maintained the genocide designation and the (Trump administration’s) sanctions on products produced by Uyghur forced labor,” says Tahir Imin, a Uyghur activist, “but we haven’t seen concrete new steps to address the crisis from the new administration so far.”
If the genocide designation has become a political football in Washington, the question is not a semantic one for Uyghurs such as Imin, who saw first hand Beijing’s system of concentration camps as a political prisoner. He spent nearly two years in prison for his activism in a Uyghur culture facing torture, labor and other hardships. A ten-month portion of his imprisonment took place at an intensive labor re-education camp, where food was scarce and Communist indoctrination was constant.”
