SULAIMANI (ESTA) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday he sees “increasingly adversarial” aspects to the United States’ relationship with China.
“There are clearly increasingly adversarial aspects to the relationship, there are certainly competitive ones,” Blinken told CNN, adding that there were also areas of cooperation between the two countries.
The United States on Saturday condemned China’s sanctions against two U.S. religious rights officials and a Canadian lawmaker in a dispute over Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims and other minorities.
Beijing’s sanctions followed those imposed by the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada earlier this week for what they say are violations of the rights of Uighur Muslims and other Turkic minorities in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Activists and U.N. rights experts say at least a million Muslims have been detained in camps in Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labor and sterilizations.
China has repeatedly denied all accusations of abuse and says its camps offer vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
(Esta Media Network/Reuters)
