What Does Calling Something a Genocide Actually Mean?

On his last day in office, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a “determination” accusing China of committing “atrocities” against its Uighur minority in the country’s Xinjiang region. He alleged the government and Chinese Communist Party were responsible for crimes against humanity similar to those prosecuted at the Nuremburg Trials after World War II. He also leveled the charge of genocide, which he said was ongoing and described as “the systematic attempt to destroy” the Uighurs by the