Boris Johnson has refused to describe the treatment of China’s Muslim Uighur minority as “genocide”, despite use of the term by both the Trump and Biden administrations. Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, signalled a tough line on China from the new administration in Washington on Tuesday, when he told a Senate confirmation hearing that he backed his predecessor Mike Pompeo’s charge of genocide against Beijing. Mr Pompeo used his final full day in office as Donald Trump’s minister for international affairs to say: “I believe this genocide is ongoing and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state.”