Congress turns up China heat on Trump
WASHINGTON — In a rare show of bipartisan unity, Republicans and Democrats plan to force President Donald Trump to take a more active stand on human rights in China, preparing vetoproof legislation that would punish top Beijing officials for detaining more than 1 million Muslims in internment camps.
The effort comes amid growing congressional frustration with Trump’s unwillingness to challenge China over human rights abuses, despite news reports outlining atrocities, or to confront such issues globally.
To press Trump on China, lawmakers plan to move ahead with legislation that would punish Beijing for its repression of ethnic Uighur Muslims, with enough supporters to compel the president to sign or risk being overruled by Congress before the 2020 election.
A version of the legislation, known as the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act, passed both the House and Senate this year, but its path to the White House was stalled this month by a procedural process.
Human rights causes draw rare bipartisan support in Congress, and many Republican lawmakers have broken from Trump on the matter, even as they move in lockstep with the president on nearly every other issue, including defending him against impeachment.
“There’s been a sense by some that the administration hasn’t prioritized human rights in its broader foreign policy,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. “I don’t think that’s necessarily accurate — but that sense has grown. There’s been a sense that Congress needs to step up.”
Last month, Congress passed legislation by unanimous consent supporting the Hong Kong protests, forcing Trump to sign the bill.
Trump, who had previously said he was “standing with” Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, risked being overruled by Congress and criticized as weak on China if he vetoed the measure.
Still, when Trump signed the bill the night before Thanksgiving, he issued a statement saying he would “exercise executive discretion” in enforcing its provisions.
Lawmakers this year also passed legislation recognizing the 1915 killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide, over the objections of Trump.
Also it approved a resolution calling for the end of U.S. military support of the war in Yemen, in which a Saudi Arabia-led coalition is bombing civilians. Trump vetoed the measure.
In October, after Trump withdrew U.S. forces just inside Syria’s border, paving the way for a Turkish military operation against Kurdish forces, lawmakers voted to rebuke the administration for the decision and show support for the Kurds, a persecuted group in the Middle East that has fought with U.S. troops against Islamic State.
In the coming months, Congress is expected to try to pass legislation that would punish Turkey and Saudi Arabia for human rights abuses, though it’s unclear whether those efforts would have a veto-proof majority.
The effort includes a package of Turkey sanctions sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
The legislation, which would penalize those who commit human rights abuses in Syria, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in December.
Some human rights issues draw greater bipartisan support than others. China hawks have become ascendant across Congress and in the administration, and many Americans increasingly see China as a threat.
Although Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have criticized China
on the persecution of Muslims, 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 Trump in the Oval Office.
When she tried to explain the camps to Trump, he appeared unaware of the situation and simply said: “That’s tough stuff.”
“It’s hard to find evidence of genuine personal interest,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “On China, at a minimum, President Trump should stop describing an authoritarian, abusive leader as a ‘terrific guy’; doing so gives Chinese authorities the opportunity to choose between that characterization and the far tougher ones offered up by other senior U.S. officials.”
Trump, who has criticized China over its economic practices, has refrained from imposing sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for the camps, for fear of jeopardizing the chances of reaching a trade deal.
Many top aides and lawmakers from both parties have pushed for sanctions, but the Treasury Department has opposed the penalties.
The Uighur act, which had Rubio and Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., as sponsors, would compel Trump to impose sanctions on Chen Quanguo, the top Communist Party official in Xinjiang, where the camps are.
In October, the Trump administration placed a few Chinese businesses and security organizations on a commercial blacklist because of their suspected roles in Muslim abuses, but many analysts considered that a weak punishment.