Trump Says He Avoided Punishing China Over Uighur Camps to Protect Trade Talks
Channel: Kill Vlc
Date: 2020-06-23

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President Trump said he resisted punishing China for its mass internment of ethnic Uighurs last year for fear of jeopardizing trade talks with Beijing, a blunt admission of his transactional approach to human rights and willingness to subordinate other U. S.  policy priorities to a potential trade deal he considers vital to his re-election. In an interview with Axios published on Sunday, Mr.  Trump was asked why he had not approved a Treasury Department plan in late 2018 to impose sanctions on Chinese government officials who were connected to the severe crackdown on Chinas Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal, Mr.  Trump said. And when youre in the middle of a negotiation and then all of a sudden you start throwing additional sanctions on  weve done a lot, he added.  I put tariffs on China, which are far worse than any sanction you can think of. Mr.  Trump has taken a selective approach to human rights as president, imposing sanctions over rights abuses in countries he aims to intimidate, like Iran and Venezuela, while turning a largely blind eye when it comes to an ally like Saudi Arabia, or in the case of China, where he hopes to strike a trade deal.  After he began to pursue a nuclear deal with North Korea, Mr.  Trump abruptly dropped his criticisms of that countrys infamous human rights abuses.