WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China threatened retaliation after U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday calling for sanctions over the repression of China’s Uighurs, as excerpts from a book by his former national security adviser alleged he had approved of their mass detention.
The bill, which Congress passed with only one “no” vote, was intended to send China a strong message on human rights by mandating sanctions against those responsible for oppression of members of China’s Muslim minority.
The United Nations estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region. The U.S. State Department has accused Chinese officials of subjecting Muslims to torture, abuse “and trying to basically erase their culture and their religion.”
China, which denies mistreatment and says the camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism, responded to the signing of the law with anger, saying it “vilified” the human rights situation in Xinjiang and was a malicious attack against China.
“We again urge the U.S. side to immediately correct its mistakes and stop using this Xinjiang-related law to harm China’s interests and interfere in China’s internal affairs,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Otherwise, China will resolutely take countermeasures, and all the consequences arising therefrom must be fully borne by the United States,” it added, without giving details.
China and the United States are already at loggerheads over everything from China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic to U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan.
One of the main exile groups, the World Uyghur Congress, thanked Trump for signing the law, adding that it “gave hope to the desperate Uighur people”.
Trump signed the bill as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held his first face-to-face meeting since last year with China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi.
Trump issued a signing statement that some of the bill’s requirements might limit his constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy so he would regard them as advisory, not mandatory.
Trump did not hold a ceremony to mark his signing, which came as newspapers published excerpts from the new book by former national security adviser John Bolton.
Among other allegations, Bolton says that Trump sought Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help to win re-election during a closed-door 2019 meeting, and that Trump said Xi should go ahead with building the camps in Xinjiang.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Uighur law for the first time calls for sanctions on a member of China’s powerful Politburo, Xinjiang’s Communist Party secretary, Chen Quanguo, as responsible for “gross human rights violations.”
It also calls on U.S. companies operating in Xinjiang to take steps to ensure they do not use parts made with forced labor.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, Beijing newsroom, and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Tom Brown, Stephen Coates and Gerry Doyle)
