December 28, 2019

"In a rare show of bipartisan unity, Republicans and Democrats are planning to try to force President Trump to take a more active stand on human rights in China..."

"... preparing veto-proof legislation that would punish top Chinese officials for detaining more than one million Muslims in internment camps. The effort comes amid growing congressional frustration with Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to challenge China over human rights abuses, despite vivid news reports this year outlining atrocities, or to confront such issues globally.... 'There’s been a sense by some that the administration hasn’t prioritized human rights in its broader foreign policy,' said Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. 'I don’t think that’s necessarily accurate — but that sense has grown. There’s been a sense that Congress needs to step up.'... Although Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have criticized China on the persecution of Muslims, Mr. Trump has said nothing. In July, Jewher Ilham, the daughter of Ilham Tohti, a Uighur professor whom China sentenced to life in prison in 2014, joined other victims of religious persecution to meet with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. When she tried to explain the camps to Mr. Trump, he appeared ignorant of the situation and simply said, 'That’s tough stuff.'... 'I’m a big fan of the president on many fronts, but on this, someone has to stand up,' Senator Rand Paul [said]."

From "Congress Wants to Force Trump’s Hand on Human Rights in China and Beyond/Lawmakers aim to pass veto-proof legislation in 2020 that would punish China over its treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims" (NYT).

69 comments:

rhhardin said...

Everybody but Trump prefers virtue signalling. Trump prefers pressure.

Josephbleau said...

This probably is preferred by the China appeasers and those paid off by China as it will be completely ineffective. It also shows that support for farmers by free traders was just a ploy to attack Trump policy.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Hey what about the Christians in the middle east? Oh wait, um.

stevew said...

So what's stopping them? We need common sense human rights defense laws, especially as regards China's treatment of the Uighurs.

Ann Althouse said...

How would the bill "punish top Chinese officials"?

I clicked through to the text: It requires "visa- and property-blocking sanctions" on the officials but gives the President the power to "waive the imposition of such sanctions on U.S. national interest grounds."

Mr. Forward said...

Step one: quit trading with China.
Step two: relocate 1500 miles of Walmarts to the border.
New slogan “Build The Walmart”.

wendybar said...

I don't think Trump is the problem. Hey Joe, ask Hunter about his China dealings!!!!

EdwdLny said...

Hmm ,concern for muslims in China. Uh, why exactly doesn't the muslim world speak up, act, protest ? I think our concern may be a bit misplaced.

Owen said...

The bill sounds like vanilla stuff, same template as used on IRGC and Russian bad boys. Perhaps better focused than a blanket ban on trade or travel, but nothing magic. Call it “Gesture +” statecraft.

But very handy to browbeat Trump: why, he’s heartless! He’s In league with these monsters, he hasn’t endorsed our beautiful new law with sufficient enthusiasm! Shame!

Meh.

JMR said...

I would think that the human rights issue would be another cudgel that the President could use in the ongoing trade negotiations. If he took a stand on this, he might be able to get other Western countries to back him, assuming the EU hasn't adopted a position of quiet appeasement.

James K said...

Concern for Muslims in China? How about for Christians in the Middle East? And since when does Rand Paul want us to get involved in other countries' domestic issues?

Mr. Majestyk said...

Shouldn't these Senators be directing their comments to the person really in charge, you know, President Vindman?

Hagar said...

The western provinces of China are populated by more or less Moslem Turkic peoples. In imperial days, Beijing did not much interfere much in how these areas were governed as long as they did not openly revolt. Today, the communist government cannot tolerate a rival totalitarian system and may be especially nervous since it no longer has the cover of socialism as a rival religion. It is just a question of naked power and survival.

The U.S. needs to consider how it wants to promote human rights by virtue signalling and grandstanding here. We want the communists to fail, but probably not at the price of having an expansionist Islamic movement rise in China's interior.

TJM said...

No president has been tougher on China than Trump. This is just libtard grandstanding. What did Clintoon or Obozo do about human rights violations in China? They took more Chinese cash, of course.

AllenS said...

Fuck the Muslims, what about the Christians?

wild chicken said...

"there's been a sense...".


I got reamed by a philosophy professor for that kind of weasely writing. It still burns.

Bobb said...

Joe Biden claims he can handle China better than Trump. Already Joe has introduced Chinese financiers to his son, Hunter.

Earnest Prole said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Earnest Prole said...

Trump’s China policy is identical to the NBA’s: Why let a silly thing like human rights ruin your business deals?

Birkel said...

So they're going to give Trump more power in his negotiations with China in order to punish him.

rcocean said...

The Democrat Congress can't balance the budget and run up trillion dollar deficits, or provide border security or sane immigration laws, but they can pass meaningless legislation about foreign affairs. The D's are now officially the interventionist, imperialist war party. Every war that Trump wants to end, they want to stay in. Plus, sanctioning every country that doesn't meed their "Standards". All the while running up trillion dollar trade deficits.

Invade the World, invite the world - Vote Democrat in 2020.

rcocean said...

The easiest way to "punish" China is by forcing them to have equality in trade and stop running up $500 billion trade surpluses. But the D's don't want to do that. So, its meaningless sanctions.

rcocean said...

Some Big Donors are pushing this, that's why its being passed.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Except the democrats could give a rip. They only care about their own power. They love the idea of chi-com ultimate power.

narciso said...

Is that why the nba has a camp in urumqi and the state department is sanctioning it.?

Big Mike said...

Have the people preparing this legislation checked with the Interdepartmental Consensus?

BTW, for the legislation to be veto-proof, it needs the votes of 291 members of the House, or more, and at least 67 Senators. Nothing less works.

Hagar said...

The U.S. wishes both sides to lose, which is just a pious wish, not a policy, and in any case should be wary of giving either side an argument of patriotic or religious duty to resist the Yankee imperialist warmongers, etc., and so forth.

rcocean said...

One great thing about Trump is we're saved all the globalony and cant we'd got from McCain and Bush. All the shit about "Saving the world" and "Spreading Democracy throughout the world through bribery and the sword". Going back and reading Bush's 2004 inaugural, its seems to be written by a crazy man.

America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation.

William said...

Didn't Iran just enter into a military agreement of some kind with China? If China is good enough for the militant mullahs of Iran, it should pass muster with us. We shouldn't try to be holier than the mullahs.

Michael K said...

Why the "Articles of Confederation" were replaced by the Constitution and its President.

mockturtle said...

Trump would be wise to stay out of the internal affairs of other countries.

Mr. Majestyk said...

I do not know what to think about this and won't know until Pierre Delecto weighs in.

mccullough said...

Trump should start proposing to Congress some very harsh sanctions just to show how full of shit they are.

1. Pull all the Chinese student visas, including Xi’s daughter.

2. Ban the importation of all goods from China.

3. Sanction the NBA for any business in China.


This would be good for some laughs.

Maybe Trump figures the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world should pressure China. They are silent about it. If Iran and Saudi Arabia don’t care, then why should the US

MadisonMan said...

I guess my question for the Times would be: Why haven't you been advocating for this for a long time? Why does it show up in your News only when it's a cudgel to be used against Trump?

mccullough said...

I remember when Free Tibet was a thing. But the Cheap Toys prevailed

Mattman26 said...

Trump’s China policy seems more concerned with American farmers and workers than with Uighurs (sp?). I think this sort of thing used to be called realpolitik, and was generally thought of as a good thing.

Funny to see Rand Paul on the other side of this.

hombre said...

Oh yeah, like “Free Tibet” only dumber. And remember when Congress expressed its concern for decades of persecution of Christians in China and in Muslim countries? Me neither.

What perfect timing for Congress, expressing its “support” for Trump during difficult trade negotiations by passing dumb-ass, virtue signaling, veto proof legislation. /Sarc

Muslims are killing and otherwise persecuting non-Muslims all over the world. We need some balance to our virtue signaling.

Mattman26 said...

Remember when we helped save the Muslims in Afghanistan from the Russkies? Look where that got us.

hombre said...

This ought to be a UN deal. The UN craps on Israel at ever turn for defending herself against Muslin terrorists. Why not a resolution condemning China for persecuting Muslims who are not terrorists? (Obviously, this is a rhetorical question. The business of the UN is largely anti-Semitism.)

mccullough said...

Get the BDS China movement going on campuses. Start with all the schools who have a lot of Chinese nationals attending.

The Era of Virtue Signaling would come to a quick end

chuck said...

Now Trump is too soft on China, and this after the Democrats assured me that the trade war with China was a yuge mistake. What happened? Next up, Cuba's treatment of LBGT people.

Birches said...

The framing of this story is ridiculous. Are the NYT writers this demented or will no one read the article if it isn't sufficiently Orange Man Bad?

William said...

Two questions:

#1) Have human rights abuses in China gotten significantly worse in China since January 20, 2017?

#2) Did Øbama do anything about human rights abuses in China during his eight years as the greatest president in United States history?

Q.E.D.

Fernandinande said...

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and their ilk need to step in and do...can they do anything?

mccullough said...

There are plenty of Chinese interests in foreign countries for Muslims to attack. Muslims are afraid of China.

pchuck1966 said...

Maybe he should get lebron james on it.

stevew said...

How does Congressional legislation force the President to take a more active stand on human rights in China? Legislation can proclaim support for human rights in China, but it cannot force the President to actually say something. Legislation could impose restrictions on travel or other sanctions on certain people in China, presumably government people responsible for the human rights abuse or issue, but that wouldn't force the President to do anything.

No, what I'm seeing here is just the latest Orange Man Bad proclamation.

Narr said...

rcocean@914 nails it! Most of our recent presidents have been gaga over human rights bullshit, to the advantage of nobody except the careerist ghouls of Imperial DC.

Narr
Perhaps Trump can break the chain

narciso said...


From the last instance:


https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/12/article/japans-secret-war-and-the-atomic-bomb/

Narayanan said...

Ann Althouse said...
How would the bill "punish top Chinese officials?
______&&&&&++++++
More importantly how do USA identify them?

Via Intelligence community?

Seriously!?

John henry said...

Seems like something muslim countries should be making noise about. Protecting their co-religionists and all. They don't seem to be. Do they know something we don't?

But yes, we should be complaining. Same as we should have complained about the socialists taking massive numbers of Jews poles and others to the death camps.

We should also complain about the Chinese government assigning Chinese men to "marry" and impregnate the prisoner's wives.

Otoh, I don't see that there is much beyond protesting that we can do.

I am happy to see Congress doing something, even if it is only symbolic.

John Henry

narciso said...

The main target is the governor of xinjiang.

Narayanan said...

If the USA advocate breakup of China and China advocate breakup of the USA

Is it win-win or not?

At least honest!?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“I would think that the human rights issue would be another cudgel that the President could use in the ongoing trade negotiations.”

Yes. Force his hand or play into his hand?

Narayanan said...

Are Uniparty hope Trump will negotiate freedom for Uighurs with tariff concessions! Instead of freedom for American with tariffs in place.

n.n said...

Planned parenthood (e.g. selective-child), diversity, immigration reform, political congruence, social justice, and globalism (e.g. arbitrage games). Now they care about human rights?

n.n said...

Are Uniparty hope Trump will negotiate freedom for Uighurs with tariff concessions! Instead of freedom for American with tariffs in place.

Exactly. China et al are a linchpin for green new deals.

n.n said...

Fuck the Muslims, what about the Christians?

Apparently, fuck them both, and diverse native ethnicities, too. Fortunately, China has planned to colonize Africa to compensation for their Pro-Choice decades and to claim resources, too. It's actually a win-win situation, as long there is a consensus between the minority rulers and Chinese ambitions.

n.n said...

Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. [Lemkin]
-- etymonline.com

Seeing Red said...

Congress is actually getting together to do something?

Hide.

Seeing Red said...

Boris is taking care of the Jews and Christians.

Unknown said...

Only fair

The muzzies would have done this for us keffirs...

Greg D said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Zach said...

You know, if you honestly want to get rid of Trump, this is a better way to do it than impeachment.

Find several issues where the administration's position is out of step with public opinion.

Advocate a position that's closer to what the public wants.

Take public votes, and make the administration support or oppose your popular position.

That's how political opposition works. It's impossible to convince people who don't want to listen, but in the long run it works much better than impeachment.

Bonus prize -- sometimes you get the policy change without even having to wait for an election!

Anonymous said...

We inherited this thing, America. Its light shone on the world. Xe came from China, and called himself John, because he wanted to be part of it. Pablo came from Mexico and called himself Paul, because he wanted to be part of it. Natasha came from Russia and called herself, well, she calls herself Natasha because it's sexy to Americans, but still, she wanted to be part of it. Susan came from Baltimore, and called herself Shaniqua. Wait, I'm getting off the point. Anyway. We have this thing, America. We only have it, if we protect it. Stop listening to women, get your rifle, prepare to go to Virginia. We stop the nonsense there, or we face it everywhere. People come here from all over the world now to feast on the carcass. Man Up.

Ambrose said...

First of all, the argument that Trump is not as tough on China as Obama had been is laughable. Second, as sad as it is to say, no one cares about Muslims. They have long since sacrificed global good will.

mockturtle said...

Hercules urges: Stop listening to women, get your rifle, prepare to go to Virginia. We stop the nonsense there, or we face it everywhere. People come here from all over the world now to feast on the carcass. Man Up.

Well, I am a woman and I agree with you. This battle must be fought somewhere at some time and Virginia seems to be the tipping point. Godspeed.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Did congress think impeaching president Trump would make him more amenable to their foreign policy concerns?

Anonymous said...

Mock...This thing is over. What remains is boys dying. No fuel for the RV.