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Trump signs bill allowing anti-China sanctions over alleged Uyghur human rights abuses

17-6-2020 < RT 12 186 words
 

President Donald Trump has signed a bill that would allow the US to sanction Chinese officials for the alleged repression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang Province. The bill passed Congress with bipartisan support.


Trump signed the act into law on Wednesday, and a statement from the president accused the Chinese government of the “systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labor, and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uyghurs and other minorities in China.”


The president will now have 180 days to submit a report to Congress identifying the officials responsible for these abuses, who will then be subject to sanctions. It also requires the State Department to compile a report on these alleged human rights violations, just as it was required to do under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, a similar piece of legislation passed amid anti-China protests in the semi-autonomous city last year.


China denies operating “concentration camps,” instead claiming that Xinjiang’s Uyghurs are held in “re-education” centers, in a bid to clamp down on terrorism in the province.


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