Joe Biden never mentioned genocide, slavery in Xi Jinping call, China says

China’s Foreign Ministry accused the White House of lying on Friday when it claimed President Biden discussed the genocide and enslavement of Uyghur Muslims with his Beijing counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Thursday.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters hours after the call that Biden had “raised genocide and forced labor practices by the [People’s Republic of China].”

“That is something that he raised about human rights, as he always does,” she said. “This is, as we’ve said, that anytime the president has an opportunity, he raises that when he meets with another leader, and called on [the] PRC to cease its ongoing human rights abuses across China.” 

When asked how Xi had responded, the press secretary said: “They would have to respond on their own. I cannot speak for President Xi.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijan responded by blasting the administration in a Friday press conference.

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“I can tell you that allegations of ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang are pure lies,” Zhao said. “You said the White House press secretary claimed that ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labor’ came up in last night’s call. That is disinformation.”

Neither country’s official readout of the call mentioned the Uyghurs, with the US statement saying only that the two leaders “discussed a range of issues important to the bilateral relationship and other regional and global issues.”

“I’m not going to get into a back and forth with a PRC government spokesperson,” a National Security Council spokesman told The Post Friday. “The president raised concerns about human rights with President Xi, as he always does. He was crystal clear about his concerns. He also raised the need to resolve the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China.”

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China has long been accused of human rights abuses in the northwestern Xinjiang region, where Uyghurs are held under horrendous conditions while undergoing systematic torture and forced sterilizations.

The US formally slapped the Asian superpower with sanctions in March 2021 and led a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games earlier this year.

In December of last year, Biden signed off on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which prohibits the importation of goods from the Xinjiang region unless the importer can prove they were not manufactured using forced labor.

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Biden chose not to sign the bill on camera. However, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted the move wasn’t to spare China embarrassment.

“He signs bills on camera. Off camera sometimes, sometimes on camera,” Psaki said. “We support the bill and obviously we’ve been leading the effort in the world to call out human rights abuses.”