Duty of Interference to Support Democracy and Human Rights

President Trump signs bill supporting Hong Kong protesters 
By Andrew O'Reilly

President Trump signs Hong Kong bill.

President Trump on Wednesday signed two bills meant to support human rights and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, drawing a furious response from Beijing's foreign ministry.

The bills were signed as Hong Kong continues to be gripped by turmoil amid widespread discontent over Chinese rule in the special administrative region. 

Chinese officials had hoped President Trump would veto the bill and the president had expressed some concerns about complicating the effort to work out a trade deal with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
"Look, we have to stand with Hong Kong," Trump said in an interview on "Fox & Friends" last week, later adding: "But I'm also standing with President Xi. He's a friend of mine. He's an incredible guy."
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act mandates sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who carry out human rights abuses and requires an annual review of the favorable trade status that Washington grants Hong Kong. 

The second bill prohibits export to Hong Kong police of certain nonlethal munitions, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, water cannons, stun guns and tasers.
"The act reaffirms and amends the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, specifies United States policy towards Hong Kong, and directs assessment of the political developments in Hong Kong,” Trump said in a statement.
He added: “Certain provisions of the Act would interfere with the exercise of the President's constitutional authority to state the foreign policy of the United States. My administration will treat each of the provisions of the Act consistently with the president's constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations.”
The munitions bill was passed unanimously, while Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the sole House member to oppose the human rights bill. 

Before Wednesday's signing announcement, Trump would only commit to giving the measures a "hard look."

Hong Kong kept its advantageous trading status with the U.S. upon its 1997 handover to China by the U.K., in recognition of Beijing’s pledge to allow it to retain its own laws, independent judiciary and civil and economic freedoms.
That independent status has come into question amid moves by Beijing to gradually strengthen its political control over the territory, helping spark months of increasingly violent protests.
Earlier in November, China’s legislature argued it had the sole right to interpret the validity of Hong Kong’s laws after the territory’s court struck down an order banning the wearing of masks at protests. 

Legal scholars described that as a power grab violating the governing framework known as “one country, two systems.”
With Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed government refusing to enter into dialogue or make concessions, the territory’s police force has been given broad powers to quell the protests. 

That has brought excessive use of force and the abuse of detainees, along with a complete lack of accountability for officers.
In a September report, Amnesty International documented numerous cases where protesters had to be hospitalized for treatment of injuries inflicted while being arrested.
The signing of the act was widely praised by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers.
"If America does not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out elsewhere," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. 

“This bicameral, bipartisan law reaffirms our nation’s commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the face of Beijing’s crackdown. America is proud to stand with the people of Hong Kong on the side of freedom and justice.
“I am pleased that the President signed this legislation and look forward to its prompt enforcement.”
“The signing of this legislation into law ensures the United States finally sends a clear and unequivocal message to the people of Hong Kong: We are with you,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. 

“With the world standing witness to history as the people of Hong Kong risk it all in pursuit of their legitimate aspirations for autonomy and against the erosion of democracy, I am incredibly proud to support the people of Hong Kong with the tools in this powerful new law.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., added: I applaud President Trump for signing this critical legislation into law. The U.S. now has new and meaningful tools to deter further influence and interference from Beijing into Hong Kong’s internal affairs.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho said the bills are "an important step forward in holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy and its repression of fundamental human rights." 

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., warned Xi: "Americans despise tyrants and stand in solidarity with Hong Kong. The whole world has seen both the courage of Hong Kongers and the brutality of your Chinese Communist Party. As long as freedom-seekers fill the streets of Hong Kong, the American people will take their side."
President Trump’s signing of the act comes just days after pro-democracy candidates in Hong Kong won 388 out of 452 seats in 18 district council races, while pro-Beijing forces, who previously held 73 percent of the seats, won only 62. 

Voters came out in droves with a 71 percent turnout -- up from 47 percent four years ago in the same elections, according to the Electoral Affairs Commission.

China's crimes against humanity

US Senate presses sanctions on China's treatment of Uighurs

AFP

More than one million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up into concentration camps in the tightly-controlled northwest colony, home to China's Uighur population.

WASHINGTON -- The US Senate has approved a Bill to press China on its treatment of Uighurs, requiring the US government to closely monitor the mass incarceration of the community and consider punishment of those responsible.
The Senate unanimously approved the so-called Uighur Human Rights Policy Act late Wednesday. It still needs passage by the House of Representatives, which is highly likely as the Bill enjoys wide bipartisan support.
The act would require US intelligence to produce a report within six months on the crackdown in East Turkestan, the western colony where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in concentration camps.
It would also establish a State Department special coordinator on East Turkestan and ask the FBI to assess reports of harassment by China of US citizens and residents of Uighur heritage.
The Bill also asks Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider sanctions on Chinese officials behind the policy, notably Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief for East Turkestan.
"It's long overdue for the United States to hold the Chinese government and Communist Party officials accountable for the systemic and egregious human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in East Turkestan," said Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican ally of Trump who co-sponsored the resolution.
The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised China, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently calling Beijing's treatment of Uighurs one of the "worst stains on the world."
But activists say that US actions have gone little beyond statements at a time that Trump is embroiled in multiple feuds with China, most notably on trade.
Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who co-sponsored the Bill with Rubio, said the measure showed that the United States was not turning a blind eye even though the Trump administration "has not seen fit to make the tragic situation in East Turkestan a priority."
Rights groups and witnesses accuse China of forcibly trying to draw Uighurs away from their Islamic customs and integrate them into the majority Han culture.
After initially denying their existence, Beijing now defends the camps, which it calls "vocational education centers."

China's crimes against humanity

Uyghurs urge action against China in Washington

By Jennifer Hansler

Zeynep Ablajan said she hasn't been able to speak to her husband, Yalkun Rozi, in over two years. He is a Uyghur scholar and textbook author who was detained in East Turkestan, China in October 2016.
That was the last time she heard his voice.
"It is torturing looking back," she told CNN through a translator.
"I didn't expect that would be my last contact with my husband."
Ablajan said that he was accused of "disseminating separatist ideology" and sentenced in 2018 to 15 years in prison -- a sentence Ablajan said was predetermined and came after a "sham trial."
Ablajan said she doesn't know where her husband is.
"I'm very concerned about his health," she told CNN, adding that she wants to "hear his voice" and "know if he's okay."

'Everything that makes the Uyghurs unique has been targeted'Ablajan was one of dozens of members of the Uyghur community, advocates and lawmakers who gathered on Capitol Hill in Washington Monday to recognize the plight of the Uyghurs and other persecuted minorities being detained in China.
The evening reception capped a day of activism on the Hill organized by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
The US State Department, according to its most recent Human Rights Report, estimates that China has "arbitrarily detained 800,000 to more than two million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims in internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities."
"International media, human rights organizations, and former detainees reported security officials in the camps abused, tortured, and killed some detainees," the report noted.
Rushan Abbas, a Uyghur-American activist and founder of Campaign for Uyghurs, said that even living in the US has not protected her from being a target.
Days after she spoke out about the Uyghur crisis in September 2018, she said, her sister and her aunt were abducted.
"I have been a proud citizen of the United States for 25 years, yet the long arm of the Chinese Communist regime has extended its reach across the borders to ravage my heart by jailing the only close family I have," she said.
She accused the Chinese government of targeting the Uyghurs' "right to live."
"Everything that makes the Uyghurs unique has been targeted and treated as abnormality: language, culture, religion, history and ethnic identity. All normal activities in Islam are being banned and labeled as 'religious extremism' as part of a 'war on terror,'" she said.

'Where is the outrage?'
Members of the Trump administration and many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been outspoken about the crimes being committed against the Uyghurs.
"We need to push aggressively on the plight of the Uyghurs," said US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, who also addressed the issue in a briefing last week.
However, many at Monday's event called for more to be done.
"I am saddened by the timid response of the world community, world leaders, who should be defenders of the freedom and democracy," Abbas said.
"Where is the outrage against such horrendous, repugnant catastrophe that's happening on our watch?" she said.
"Isn't anyone seeing that Uyghurs are facing cultural and physical genocide today because of their identity and religion?"
She told CNN she believed that the US should consider sanctions.
Legislation introduced by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in the Senate and by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) in the House, calls for the application of Global Magnitsky and related sanctions, among other measures.
The House version had 43 co-sponsors, according to Congress.gov; the Senate version, 28 co-sponsors.
Participants on Monday urged more lawmakers to sign on.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rubio, Menendez, Smith and Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross urging them to impose Global Magnitsky Sanctions on Chinese government and Communist Party officials.
The letter, signed by 22 other senators and 17 other representatives, also called on the Commerce Department "to strengthen export controls to ensure that US companies are not assisting the Chinese Government in creating the vast civilian surveillance or big-data predictive policing systems used in East Turkestan."
"Despite the Chinese government's obfuscations and its slanderous attacks on critics of its abusive policies, there is mounting global concern regarding China's treatment of its minority populations—human rights abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity," the letter said.
"We are disappointed with the Administration's failure so far to impose any sanctions related to the ongoing systemic and egregious human rights abuses in East Turkestan."
At Monday's event, there were also calls for Donald Trump to speak out against the abuses in conversations with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials.
Trump will meet with the Vice Premier of China on Thursday.
"I would urge Trump to bring this up in his bilateral discussions as a higher priority than it is right now. There's nothing more important than, at the end of the day, celebrating what makes America exceptional and that is our commitment to human rights and to dignity and to freedom," Rep. Raja Krishnamoorth said.
"And if we can't uphold those values abroad, then where are we as a country? The day that we do not mention this in our bilateral discussion with any other countries is the day that we've lost our way," the Illinois Democrat said.

US legislators to urge China sanctions over East Turkestan crackdown

Proposed bill will urge President Trump to condemn crackdown on Uighurs, press for ban on sale of surveillance technology.
AL JAZEERA
People mingle in the old town of Kashgar in East Turkestan in March last year.

US legislators will introduce legislation on Wednesday urging the Trump administration to respond more strongly to China's crackdown on Uighur Muslims, including possible sanctions.
Te bill will also ask President Donald Trump to condemn China's actions in the East Turkestan colony, call for the appointment of a new "special coordinator" for US policy on the issue, and press for a ban on the export of technology that Beijing could use in surveillance and mass detention of the minority Uighurs, according to a copy seen by Reuters news agency.
The legislators want the government to consider human rights-related sanctions against East Turkestan Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who is also a member of the powerful politburo, and other officials "credibly alleged to be responsible" for the security crackdown.
"Chinese government officials should be held accountable for their complicity in this evil, and US businesses should be barred from helping China create a hi-tech police state in East Turkestan," said Chris Smith, a Republican representative and one of the sponsors of the bipartisan legislation that will be presented in both the upper and lower houses of Congress.
Trump's senior aides have become more vocal recently in their criticism of China's treatment of its minority Muslims in East Turkestan.
Any decision to impose sanctions, however, would be a rare move on human rights grounds against China, with which the Trump administration is engaged in a bitter trade war.
The White House and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the legislative proposal, which is also being supported by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

Global Magnitsky Act
Beijing has dismissed accusations of human rights abuses in East Turkestan and urged the United States and other countries to stay out of its internal affairs.
China's top diplomat said earlier on Tuesday the world should ignore "gossip" about developments in East Turkestan and trust the local authorities when asked if Beijing would allow international observers to inspect camps where Muslims are believed to be held.
Western countries -- including Canada, France, Germany, and the US -- have urged China to shut down the camps in East Turkestan, where as many as one million members of the Uighur minority and other Muslims are being held.
The Trump administration for several months has been considering targeted sanctions against Chinese senior officials and companies linked to the crackdown, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The measures could be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, a law that allows the US government to target human rights violators around the world by freezing any US assets, imposing bans on US travel, and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.
Uighur activists in the US, meanwhile, marked their community's "independence day" with a protest march in Washington, DC on Tuesday.
American-Uighur Aydin Anwar told Al Jazeera that China was attempting to "wipe out" the Uighur identity.
November 12 is the 74th and 85th anniversary of two short-lived Uighur republics which were established in territory that is now part of China.