China ‘could target trade talks and US companies’ over Xinjiang human rights bill

Beijing has a range of strong options to retaliate against possible American sanctions on Chinese officials in far western region, advisers say

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Beijing says the detention facilities in Xinjiang are training and deradicalisation centres. Photo: AFP

Shi Jiangtaoin Hong KongandJun Maiin Beijing

Published: 8:02pm, 4 Dec 2019Updated: 11:25pm, 4 Dec 2019

Chinese government advisers have suggested taking tough action against the United States such as postponing trade talks and targeting American companies after the US House of Representatives passed a bill tightening human rights scrutiny on Xinjiang.

The recommendations came on the heels of the House’s near-unanimous backing on Tuesday of a strongly worded bill to mete out sanctions against senior Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The vote on the Uygur Intervention and Global Humanitarian Unified Response Act was taken less than a week after US President Donald Trump signed into law legislation backing Hong Kong protesters.

Despite widespread claims about mass internment of some one million Uygurs and members of other largely Muslim ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, Beijing insists that its activities in the far western region are an internal sovereign issue and a legitimate response to the threat of religious extremism.

Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre on American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing and an adviser to the State Council, said Beijing needed to act quickly and resolutely to push back against Washington’s offensive and confrontational China policy.

“Trump apparently thinks he can hurt China on Hong Kong and Xinjiang while still winning the trade war with a favourable deal. That’s unacceptable,” he said. “If we cannot do something as soon as possible, rather than exchanging verbal barbs, to inflict real pain on Trump and deal heavy blows to his unrealistic confidence, we may have to endure further, greater pain.”