US panel urges State Department to raise travel advisory for Xinjiang to highest level
- Co-chairs of Congressional-Executive Commission on China ask Secretary of State Antony Blinken to notify tourists ‘about the risk of enabling atrocity crimes’
- Letters also sent to three US-based travel agencies to stop any tours to the region until conditions change
A bipartisan group of US legislators is pushing the State Department to escalate its travel advisory to Xinjiang to the highest risk level due to “ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide” and the Chinese government’s promotion of tourism in the region.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released on Thursday, the co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said that “American citizens and permanent residents, companies, and other entities should be warned about the risk of enabling atrocity crimes if they participate in tourism to the XUAR”, referring to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
The commission’s leaders – Representative Chris Smith, Republican of New Jersey, and Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon – also sent letters to three US-based travel agencies to stop any tours to the region until conditions change.
“Well-intentioned tourists should not be put in the position of condoning or supporting atrocities – or be used as propaganda pawns,” they wrote.
03:28
State-backed tourism booms in Xinjiang cities ringed by camps
On their US websites, two of the companies, Wild Frontiers Adventure Travel and Geographic Expeditions, offer trips to Xinjiang cities, including Kashgar, as part of broader “silk road” tours.
The third, Abercrombie & Kent, offered tours to Tacheng in northern Xinjiang on its British website as of last week, but has since removed mention of them from the site. There are no mentions of Xinjiang tours on its US website.