US May Make Rare Move Against China

White House considers penalties over human rights issue, the treatment of Uighur Muslims
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 11, 2018 12:00 PM CDT
US May Make Rare Move Against China
Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China's Xinjiang region. Since 2016, Chinese authorities in the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang have carried out a campaign of mass detentions and indoctrination in internment camps with the stated aim of bolstering national...   (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

President Trump has been quick to go after China on trade issues, but the New York Times reports his administration is poised to penalize Beijing on a human rights issue for perhaps the first time. The administration is considering sanctions in response to China's crackdown on minority Muslims, specifically ethnic Uighurs, in the name of national security.

The AP reports an estimated 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in interment camps in Xinjiang province for indoctrination by the officially atheist government, and their plight is a cause of growing international concern. Human Rights Watch, for example, declared in a report over the weekend "that the human rights violations in Xinjiang today are of a scope and scale not seen in China since the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution." (China also is cracking down on Christianity.)

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