US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighur population in Xinjiang.

Pompeo called the Chinese government “a Marxist-Leninist regime that exerts power over the long-suffering Chinese people through brainwashing and brute force.” He stated that China’s treatment of the Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups was “increasingly repressive.”

Pompeo said that the People’s Republic of China had committed crimes against humanity against the Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minority group members in Xinjiang. These crimes, which are ongoing, include arbitrary imprisonment, forced sterilization, torture, forced labor, and “draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.” He also said that China had committed genocide of the groups.

In closing, Pompeo called upon China to immediately cease its crimes and end the persecution of Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China. He also called on “all appropriate multilateral and relevant judicial bodies” to join the US in its efforts to hold China accountable. He stated:

I have directed the U.S. Department of State to continue to investigate and collect relevant information regarding the ongoing atrocities occurring in Xinjiang, and to make this evidence available to appropriate authorities and the international community to the extent allowable by law. The United States, on its part, has spoken out and taken action, implementing a range of sanctions against senior CCP leaders and state-run enterprises that fund the architecture of repression across Xinjiang.

The US is the first country to apply these terms to the Chinese government’s actions. Last week the UK accused China of “barbarism” against the Uighur population, announcing measures to ensure that no British organizations profit from or contribute to human rights violations against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. Also last week the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China released their annual report on human rights in China, finding that China possibly committed genocide against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.