Trump administration’s response to human rights concerns in China muted: Report

Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) Even as it continues to focus on having a tough stance on trade, the Trump administration has left the root issue of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) authoritarian abuses unaddressed, a report has highlighted.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has made repeated references and centered a significant part of its foreign policy around responding to the threat of the CCP and its malign actions, Racqueal Legerwood, current China research and advocacy fellow for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), wrote in The Diplomat.

Highlighting the US State Department’s recently published 2024 Human Rights Report on China that outlines the continued control and expanding repression within and outside of China under President Xi Jinping, the writer mentioned that there is “no question” that the CCP is engaging in “grave human rights abuses”, including “crimes against humanity”.

“However, despite the Trump administration’s tough stance on China, particularly on trade, its track record falls far short of what is needed for responding to, and now even reporting on, these abuses in a meaningful way,” Legerwood wrote.

The report mentions that dismantling of USAID has had a negative effect on Chinese human rights NGOs and Tibetan refugee communities. Cuts to the Agency for Global Media, which includes the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), pose a threat to important and often exclusive reporting on Uyghur and Tibetan issues. This results in many of the abuses suffered by these communities not being reported and allows Chinese government to continue that oppression with increased impunity.

According to the report, significant changes were made in the US State Department’s 2024 Human Rights Report released in August on China, Hong Kong, and Tibet, including a blanket omission of LGBTQ issues and a reduction of focus on women’s rights and ethnic discrimination issues, especially on Tibetan language and cultural erasure efforts.

“In 2024, Amnesty reported on continued repression against LGBTQ activism in China, with activists facing arbitrary detention and interrogation and online censorship of related topics. In Hong Kong, the government cut funding and obstructed fundraising and promotion activities to LGBTQ groups, and failed to provide any meaningful updates on progress toward the implementation of a 2023 ruling by the Court of Final Appeal requiring it to provide an alternative legal framework for the recognition of same-sex partnerships. None of these threats and legislative attacks appeared in the State Department’s report,” The Diplomat report stated.

“Simultaneously, the administration’s response to human rights concerns – a significant part of then-Senator Marco Rubio’s critique of the Chinese government – has been noticeably muted. In March, the State Department issued visa restrictions in response to the forced return of 40 Uyghurs who had spent over a decade in Thailand to China – after the US demonstratively failed to exhort sufficient influence on its ‘longstanding ally’ to uphold international law. Rubio had expressed strong confidence in his department’s diplomacy to ‘achieve results’ on this issue during his January confirmation hearing. That confidence was clearly misplaced,” it added.

–IANS

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