WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday likened China’s treatment of more than one million Uighur Muslims to George Orwell’s “1984” novel, saying the Communist Party was detaining and abusing them in internment camps.
Speaking at an American Association of Christian Counselors event in Nashville, Tennessee, Pompeo also said he wished the National Basketball Association (NBA) had acknowledged the situation in the Xinjiang region.
NBA has been grappling with the backlash from a tweet by Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey last weekend in support of Hong Kong anti-government protests. Morey deleted his tweet but Chinese state media has characterized it as the latest example of West meddling in China’s affairs.