China has denounced the release of three Uyghur detainees from Guantánamo Bay on New Year’s Eve, warning that they would pose a threat both to China and to their new host country, Slovakia. The three men were held for over ten years despite investigators’ almost immediate conclusion that they posed no threat to the U.S., and a 2008 court ruling that they should be released onto American soil. From Ben Blanchard:
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the three were members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing labels a terror group.
[…] “China hopes that the relevant country … does not give asylum to terrorists, and sends them back to China as soon as possible.”
Qin added that China did not appreciate a recent U.S. State Department call for Chinese security forces to exercise restraint following the latest outbreak of violence in Xinjiang, also blamed by Beijing on “terrorists”.
“These remarks neglect the facts and are feeble,” he said. “We urge the United States to abandon their double standards when it comes to terrorism, and immediately stop saying one thing and doing another, to avoid sending the wrong message to violent terrorist forces.” [Source]
See more on last week’s clash and disagreement over China’s use of the terrorist label via CDT.
