Mike Pompeo came out in support of Mesut Ozil on Tuesday via social media, report agencies.
U.S. Secretary of State on Tuesday came out in support of Arsenal player for his criticism of China’s treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims, saying Beijing can censor the team’s football games but cannot hide rights violations,
The Arsenal midfielder, a German Muslim of Turkish origin, last week in social media posts called Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution” and criticized both China’s crackdown and the silence of Muslims in response.
Meanwhile, Former Barcelona and Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has said that Arsenal forward Mesut Ozil should not have spoken out to denounce human rights in China.
Ozil criticised China's treatment of its Muslim Uyghur minority via Twitter on Friday, leading to Chinese Central Television (CCTV) removing Arsenal's Premier League defeat to Manchester City on Sunday from their TV schedule.
While saying the situation is "complicated" because they are both Muslim, Toure disagreed with Ozil over whether athletes should use their platforms to discuss political issues.
"Footballers have to stay with football and politicians to politics because you cannot be involved with this kind of things because it's going to attract a lot of problems and a lot of things," Toure told The Associated Press.
"As a Muslim it is complicated and it is his choice. He's been doing his comments but I think he was wrong to say that."
Toure, a former Ivory Coast international, has just completed five months playing at Chinese second-tier club Qingdao Huanghai.
Arsenal, who have been commercially active in China in recent years and even opened a restaurant in Shanghai in 2018, quickly distanced themselves from Ozil's comments.
Arsenal on Saturday tried to distance itself from Ozil’s comments after he posted messages on Twitter and Instagram.
“The content he expressed is entirely Ozil’s personal opinion,” the official account of Arsenal said in a post on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday removed Arsenal’s Premier League game against Manchester City from its broadcast schedule.
“China’s Communist Party propaganda outlets can censor Mesut Ozil and Arsenal’s game all season long, but the truth will prevail,” Pompeo tweeted. “The CCP can’t hide its gross #humanrights violations perpetrated against Uighurs and other religious faiths from the world.”
The United Nations and human rights groups estimate that between 1 million and 2 million people, mostly ethnic Uighur Muslims, have been detained in harsh conditions in Xinjiang as part of what Beijing calls an antiterrorism campaign.
China has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of Uyghurs.
On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said Ozil “had been completely deceived by fake news and false statements.”
Washington has been ratcheting up its criticism of Beijing over Uighurs simultaneously as it has continued its trade deal negotiations. U.S. President Donald Trump in November signed into law congressional legislation backing protesters in Hong Kong despite angry objections from China.
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation requiring a stronger response to Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
What started as demonstrations against a now-withdrawn bill allowing extradition from Hong Kong to mainland China has morphed into calls for greater democratic freedoms and nearly six months of sometimes violent protests in Hong Kong. Beijing has condemned the unrest and blamed foreign interference.
The controversy is the latest between the sports industry and China.
In October, an executive with the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets expressed support for the pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, angering Beijing and suddenly putting on shaky ground the league’s estimated $4 billion market in China.
