U.S. avoids sensitive subject in talks with China

WASHINGTON >> The United States and China are racing to clinch a historic economic treaty that could drastically reshape relations between the world’s two largest economies. But as negotiations reach their final stages, the sensitive subject of human rights has been left conspicuously off the table.

China has faced growing condemnation from human rights groups in recent months for its detention of up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other minority Muslims in large internment camps in the country’s northwest region of Xinjiang.

But the Trump administration has studiously avoided rattling China by not raising the topic during the trade talks, viewing it as an impediment to securing what President Donald Trump has said could be “the biggest deal ever made.”

Administration officials have declined to use any of the economic leverage the White House amassed through tariffs placed on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to compel China to change its policies toward Uighurs. It has also backed away from imposing economic sanctions on Chinese officials believed to be involved in the repression of Muslims in the northwest.

In the fall, the United States was on the verge of imposing sanctions on top Chinese individuals and companies, but pulled back after some administration officials said doing so would jeopardize trade talks with Beijing, according to three U.S. officials.

Outrage over China’s repressive practices has grown among officials not working on trade. On Friday, Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said at a news conference that the Pentagon had significant concerns about the “mass imprisonment of Chinese Muslims in concentration camps,” which he said could have up to 3 million people.