{"id":426,"date":"2019-05-10T00:06:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T15:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/?p=426"},"modified":"2019-05-10T00:06:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T15:06:31","slug":"is-the-u-s-pursuing-a-trade-deal-with-china-at-the-cost-of-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/2019\/05\/10\/is-the-u-s-pursuing-a-trade-deal-with-china-at-the-cost-of-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the U.S. Pursuing a Trade Deal With China at the Cost of Human Rights?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Benjamin Wilhelm Wednesday, May 8, 2019
https:\/\/www.worldpoliticsreview.com\/trend-lines\/27831\/is-the-u-s-pursuing-a-trade-deal-with-china-at-the-cost-of-human-rights?fbclid=IwAR0dnZcS4PjGTLZVkm7x2IIOWbLdbazVR3XjjOrhqkifkKK1MZusKhWAdZc<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

itor\u2019s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week\u2019s top news and expert analysis on China.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China\u2019s Xinjiang region, Nov. 4, 2017 (AP photo by Ng Han Guan).<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The United States has offered its harshest assessment yet of the mass detention of Uighur Muslims in China\u2019s western Xinjiang autonomous region. Speaking at a press briefing<\/a>\u00a0Friday, Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said China is \u201cusing the security forces for mass imprisonment of Chinese Muslims in concentration camps.\u201d\u00a0

Pressed on his use of the term \u201cconcentration camps,\u201d Schriver defended it as \u201cappropriate.\u201d He also said that \u201cat least a million but likely closer to 3 million citizens\u201d were being detained\u2014a significant jump from the usual estimate of a\u00a0million or more<\/a>\u00a0detainees.\u00a0

China\u00a0rejected<\/a>\u00a0Schriver\u2019s comments, calling on \u201cthe relevant U.S. individual\u201d to \u201cstop interfering in China\u2019s domestic affairs.\u201d His comments also highlighted a divide within the U.S. government over how to address Beijing\u2019s most severe human rights violations without damaging prospects for a deal to end the U.S. trade war with China\u2014a divide that\u2019s most clearly demonstrated by conflicting statements over what is actually happening in Xinjiang. In an interview with CBS on Sunday, two days after Schriver spoke, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to China\u2019s detention centers as \u201cre-education camps\u201d and said they hold up to a million people. He became hostile when asked about the apparent inconsistency on the part of U.S. officials. \u201cDon\u2019t play ticky-tac,\u201d Pompeo\u00a0said in response to a question<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no discrepancy.\u201d

Pompeo\u2019s appearance\u00a0did not sit well<\/a>\u00a0with human rights advocates, who wonder why the White House has shied away from imposing targeted sanctions over the mass detention of Uighurs\u2014especially if it has evidence that the number of Uighurs incarcerated in Xinjiang is \u201ccloser to 3 million.\u201d Foreign Policy\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0last month that activists were at one point told by the administration that sanctions were forthcoming, but that they had since been taken off the table due to the trade talks.\u00a0

Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0The New York Times this week that the trade talks and China\u2019s human rights violations are linked, and that Washington should place restrictions on U.S. companies that are complicit in the crackdown through their ties to Chinese firms known to be supporting the detention centers. \u201cThere\u2019s room for scrutiny of Chinese companies that are engaged one way or another in repression in Xinjiang,\u201d she added.\u00a0

Such statements aside, the issue is almost certain to be absent from talks taking place this week in Washington, which face daunting challenges as it is. Just days ago, the talks were seen as a potential last step toward finalizing a trade deal. But after negotiations last week in Beijing, China\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0reneged on nearly all binding legal language holding a potential trade agreement together. In response, the Trump administration has said\u00a0new tariffs<\/a>\u00a0on $200 billion in Chinese goods will be implemented Friday. Trump also said the U.S. would \u201cshortly\u201d impose\u00a025 percent tariffs<\/a>\u00a0on another $325 billion in Chinese products, meaning tariffs would touch everything China exports to the U.S.\u00a0

Top Reads on China<\/strong>

The centennial of the May Fourth Movement:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Saturday marked the centennial of China\u2019s patriotic May Fourth Movement, in which students called on China to stand up against foreign imperialism. The Communist Party has \u201crooted its origin story in the romance and defiance of May 4,\u201d Beijing-based journalist Dan Xin Huang\u00a0writes<\/a>\u00a0for Foreign Affairs. The movement\u2019s themes of democracy, artistic freedom and feminism also inspired the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing\u2019s Tiananmen Square. But as Huang writes, that has not stopped the Communist Party from co-opting its legacy:
\u201cMay Fourth\u2014modern China\u2019s most potent symbol of national expression\u2014has been stripped of its aspirations and sanitized into a reliable party talking point\u2026 a recent survey administered to select [Peking University] graduate students tested their affinity to statements such as \u2018[Xi is] a leader whose heart was forged by the noble struggle\u2019 and \u2018Multiparty Western democracy is not suited to China.\u2019 One line of questioning appeared designed to root out subversives, gauging what respondents thought was embodied by \u2018the May 4th Spirit\u2019 and whether \u2018the youth should release its passion\u2026 and chase youthful ideals.\u2019\u201d
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