Those included the March shootings of Muslims in New Zealand; the Easter bombings of churches in Sri Lanka; and the killing of Jewish worshippers at synagogues in Pennsylvania and California.

To some, the absence of China’s mass internment of Uygurs in Xinjiang from that list was conspicuous – and incongruous.

It was “truly [disappointing] to see that [Trump] failed to mention the most persecuted people on the face of the Earth,” US-based Uygur activist Salih Hudayar wrote on Twitter.

“There’s certainly more that he could and should have said on the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” said one US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jailed economist Ilham Tohti nominated for top human rights prize

Trump’s silence, said the official, was “just a complete failure to stand up”.

US Vice-President Mike Pence, during brief remarks introducing Trump, mentioned Xinjiang, however.

And following Trump’s speech, at one of the first events held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York, survivors of religious persecution, including the daughter of imprisoned Uygur scholar Ilham Tohti, were invited to address the room – though by that time Trump had left the stage.

Jewher Ilham told attendees it had become a “crime” to be Uygur in China and accused Beijing of seeking to ensure that “people of faith do not answer to any greater power than the Communist Party”. Ilham’s father is serving a life sentence on separatism-related charges.

Sam Brownback, the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, defended Trump on Monday, rejecting suggestions that his lack of mention of Xinjiang was tied to efforts to get a trade deal with China.

“I wouldn’t read that the president’s separating or not concerned about one or another topic. I think he’s trying to get a trade deal, but is continuing to have these other issues move forward as well,” Brownback said.

Despite the absence of any mention of Xinjiang by Trump, it was “a big thing, a big achievement, a big signal to China” that he had created – and shared – a platform for Ilham at the United Nations, said Omer Kanat, director of the Washington-based Uygur Human Rights Project, who attended Monday’s event.

China calls Xinjiang camps training centres, but documents say otherwise

Since early 2017, Beijing is believed to have sent upwards of one million Uygurs and other minority ethnic groups in Xinjiang to mass internment camps.

The government calls the camps “vocational training centres”, though its own documents have detailed evidence of coercive internment and political brainwashing.

Trump has only publicly addressed the situation in Xinjiang once during his presidency, when he hosted a group of survivors of religious persecution at the White House in July.

“That’s tough stuff,” he said then in response to a description of the internment programmes.

His administration has also stalled the enactment of sanctions of Chinese officials over Xinjiang under the Global Magnitsky Act, for fear of jeopardising progress in trade negotiations.

US sanctions over Xinjiang’s Uygur internment camps are ‘ready to go’

While the issue of Xinjiang has not featured prominently in Trump’s personal litany of complaints – generally economic in nature – about Beijing, a number of senior officials in his administration have spoken out in strong terms about the Chinese government’s policies in the region.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of attempting to “erase its own citizens’ Muslim faith and culture” in Xinjiang and rejected the government’s claims that it was acting out of concerns over terrorism.

Beijing shot back on Monday, with a foreign ministry official justifying the government’s measures in the region by pointing to the absence of “a single terrorist attack” in the region over the past three years.

Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also falsely claimed that “all foreigners who have been to Xinjiang acknowledge and affirm” that China’s “counterterrorism and de-extremification” policies in the region have won the support of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Numerous journalists have reported efforts by local authorities to obstruct their movements in the region, including being followed, being prevented from speaking with locals and being forced to delete photographs.

US Senate passes Uygur Human Rights Policy Act

Monday’s event came as legislation calling for sanctions of Chinese officials over the mass internment programmes in Xinjiang is soon expected to move through committees in the US House of Representatives.

The Uygur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 – the Senate version of which was passed unanimously earlier this month – will then go to the House floor for a vote.

Given the strength of bipartisan support in Congress for a strong US response to human rights infringement in China, the bill looks all but set to become law; even if Trump were to reject the legislation, Congress only needs a two-thirds majority to overrule his veto.

The White House said in a statement on Monday that the Trump administration was “deeply concerned for the more than 1 million Uygurs interned in Chinese internment camps”.

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said that concern alone was insufficient.

“While the Trump administration has repeatedly raised its concerns about the persecution of Uygurs, it has yet to take meaningful actions – like imposing Global Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese government officials credibly alleged to be complicit in human rights abuses – that might actually help change Beijing’s calculus,” she said.

On Tuesday, the State Department plans to host a panel discussion on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings featuring personal testimony from “victims of China’s brutal campaign of repression” in Xinjiang.