China is "in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday as he introduced the department's annual human rights report.
The report, the first authored under Pompeo's tenure, details the human rights record of every country around the world, bringing together information from the United Nations, nonprofit advocacy groups, the media, and embassies and consulates.
While this year's report again calls out partners like Saudi Arabia, the administration has also received some criticism for appearing to pull some punches or diverging from President Donald Trump's praise for dictators and the grim reality on the ground in their countries.
In particular, Pompeo laid out in his preface the Trump administration's approach to human rights and foreign relations -- one that's been criticized for being more transactional or praised for being more pragmatic: "The policy of this Administration is to engage with other governments, regardless of their record, if doing so will further U.S. interests," he wrote, but added those interests "will only be served if governments respect human rights and fundamental freedom."
"You haven't seen things like this since the 1930s -- of rounding up, I mean, some estimations are in the millions of people, and putting them into camps, and trying to -- torturing them, abusing them, and trying to basically erase their culture and their religion," said Amb. Michael Kozak, the senior bureau official for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. "It's just remarkably awful."