(CNN)The United States' determination that China is committing genocide in Xinjiang presents a rare moral predicament for athletes and countries preparing to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
made the announcement on the last day of the Trump administration, drawing attention to the systematic abuse of the minority Uyghur population in China's far west.
The designation is the first by the US State Department
since 2016, when then Secretary of State John Kerry determined that the atrocities committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria amounted to genocide, and only
among a handful of times a US administration has applied the term to an ongoing crisis.
The United States' determination that China is committing genocide in Xinjiang presents a rare moral predicament for athletes and countries preparing to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
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