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Trump confirms he held off on China sanctions over concentration camps for fear it would affect trade deal

‘And I made a great deal, $250 billion potentially worth of purchases’

Justin Vallejo
New York
Monday 22 June 2020 20:48 BST
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Trump confirms he held off on sanctions over China concentration camps for fear it would affect trade deal

Donald Trump faced criticism on Monday after saying he held off on sanctions against China over human rights violations as he was in the “middle of a major trade deal”.

Making a great trade deal with China meant not imposing additional sanctions over the mass internment of Uighur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang detention camps, Mr Trump said in an interview with Axios.

“And I made a great deal, $250 billion potentially worth of purchases. And by the way, they’re buying a lot, you probably have seen,” Mr Trump said.

“And when you’re in the middle of a negotiation and then all of a sudden you start throwing additional sanctions on -- we’ve done a lot. I put tariffs on China, which are far worse than any sanction you can think of.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted Mr Trump’s response to the Chinese government’s “campaign of brutal repression”.

“If America does not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial issues, we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights any place in the world,” she said.

“President Trump’s admission that he is looking the other way and enabling one of the worst human rights atrocities of our time in order to ink a trade deal is appalling.”

About one million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Muslim minority groups are believed to be in the Chinese “re-education” camps, where it is feared they are subjected to torture, abuse and forced labour.

Mr Trump’s confirmation of the sanction delay comes after former National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed that the president told Chinese President Xi Jinping the camps were “exactly the right thing to do”.

In his upcoming book, The Room Where it Happened, Mr Bolton claims the president backed the camps during a conversation with Mr Xi at a 2019 G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan.

“According to our interpreter,” Mr Bolton writes, “Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do.”

Trump praised China for showing 'power of strength' in 'vicious' crushing of Tiananmen protests

On the same day the book excerpts became public, Mr Trump signed into legislation the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 to sanction Chinese officials responsible for oppressing the Uighur and Muslim minorities.

“Such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labour, and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uighurs and other minorities in China,” Mr Trump said.

When asked when or if the president would place sanctions on China, either under the new legislation or the existing Global Magnitsky Act, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not have an exact timeframe.

“He signed legislation to hold China accountable for their treatment of the Uighurs and other minorities in China but he also previously has imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials for roles in China’s treatment of Uighurs and other minorities,” Ms McEnany said.

“He’s blacklisted companies that were complicit in China’s treatment. He has taken strong action.”

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