Trump Says He Held Off on Chinese Sanctions for Trade Deal
Less than a week after signing a bill that will sanction Chinese officials for human rights abuses, President Donald Trump said he had held off on the sanctions so as not to interfere with the U.S.-China trade deal, a June 21 Axios report said. The report comes amid a series of U.S. and China steps that have further deteriorated the trade relationship, including threats of U.S. sanctions and moves by China to reduce agricultural purchases.
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In the latest step, China announced June 21 that it has suspended poultry imports from a Tyson Foods plant after employees tested positive for COVID-19. The measure will also apply to poultry imports from the plant that have recently arrived or are about to arrive in Hong Kong, an unofficial translation of a notice from China’s customs authority said. In a June 19 news release, Tyson said 481 of the 3,748 employees tested at its Northwest Arkansas facilities were confirmed positive for the coronavirus disease. Tyson did not comment on China's import suspension.
China’s announcement came less than a month after reports Beijing ordered its state-controlled companies to stop buying U.S. agricultural products in retaliation for Trump’s sanctions threats (see 2006010044). Trump said he planned to sanction Chinese officials and increase export controls on dual-use technologies for Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong’s autonomy (see 2005290047) and last week signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, which authorizes sanctions for Chinese mistreatment of the country’s Uighur population (see 2006170064).
Asked why he had not authorized sanctions against China sooner, Trump told Axios that “we were in the middle of a major trade deal.” Trump also disputed allegations made by former national security adviser John Bolton that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to increase purchases of U.S farm products to help with Trump’s upcoming election prospects.
“No, not at all,” Trump told Axios. “What I told everybody we deal with -- not just President Xi -- I want them to do business with this country. I want them to do a lot more business with this country.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said June 22, “President Trump’s admission that he is looking the other way and enabling one of the worst human rights atrocities of our time in order to ink a trade deal is appalling.” She said that Chinese government is unjustly incarcerating a million people in Xinjiang province, and that when America doesn't speak for human rights in China because of its commercial interests “we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights any place in the world.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that Trump admitted “that he condoned the Chinese government's internment of a million Uyghurs because he thought it might get him a better trade deal.” He said the deal hasn't delivered results for farmers and “sold out American values.”