Trump to Rebuke China on Muslims After Hong Kong Friction

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is poised to sign a measure that would punish Chinese officials for imprisoning more than one million Muslims in internment camps, as he looks to rebuke Beijing over its crackdown in Hong Kong and its response to the coronavirus.

Trump said he would announce on Friday what the administration would do “with respect to China,” though there's no indication he's planning to focus on the legislation. The White House has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m.

Trump is expected to eventually sign the China legislation, said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The measure, which won broad bipartisan support in Congress, would require Trump to sanction any officials found responsible for the Muslims' oppression and revoke their visas.

“We fully anticipate within a matter of days that the president will sign this,” McCaul said on a conference call.

Trump expressed displeasure with China after the country moved to pass national security legislation expected to curb freedoms in Hong Kong.

“We are not happy with what's happened,” Trump said Thursday, in response to a question about whether the U.S. would remain in the “phase one” trade deal he signed with Chinese officials in January. Trump's top economic aide Larry Kudlow told Fox News Friday that the U.S. is “furious” with what China has done “in recent days, weeks and months.”

Trump has shown little interest in human rights violations in China. But the national security law and Trump's complaints about the country's handling of the virus have escalated tensions between the world's two largest economies, and prompted the White House to examine ways to retaliate.

The president has discussed targeting China's financial sector through sanctions and trade policy, according to people familiar with the matter. He's also weighed unspecified visa restrictions on Chinese travelers, the people said.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Thursday that Trump hadn't reviewed the congressional legislation because it hadn't been forwarded to him. He said on Tuesday that he would “look at it very strongly.”

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Wednesday that Hong Kong has effectively lost its autonomy and no longer warrants special treatment under U.S. law. The declaration opens the door for Trump to impose penalties ranging from modest sanctions to revoking Hong Kong's special trading status with the U.S.

China pushed back Friday, calling U.S. actions over Hong Kong “purely nonsense” and repeating that the matter was an internal affair.

Beijing urges the U.S. to stop its “frivolous political manipulation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing, reiterating Beijing's support for Hong Kong police in upholding the law.

Trading Blame

The countries have traded insults and blame for the coronavirus pandemic, which began in the Chinese province of Hubei. But the illness has killed at least 100,000 Americans, far more deaths than China has reported, and Trump has sought to shift blame to Beijing as he his administration's handling of the crisis has come under intense criticism.

The human rights measure passed the House Wednesday on a vote of 413-1 and passed the Senate by unanimous consent. It condemns the internment of Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region of China. The legislation calls for closing the camps where they are being held.

Zhao, the foreign ministry spokesman, said the act “blatantly smears” China and interferes in its internal affairs.

Signing the bill would mark a shift for Trump, who has been reluctant in the past to retaliate against China over human rights.

But virus-related tensions between the two countries have converged with growing concern among China hawks within the administration over the Beijing government's crackdown on free expression and religious minorities.

Earlier: Trump Says He'll Announce China Moves in Friday News Conference

Before the pandemic, Trump had been loath to denounce China in order to preserve his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the trade deal. Trump, for example, only offered lukewarm support for pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong last year as the deal was being negotiated.

Overshadowing Trade

But the president recently indicated that the virus has overshadowed trade.

“I feel differently now about that deal than I did three months ago,” Trump said during a May 19 cabinet meeting. “And we'll see what all happens. But it's been a very disappointing situation. Very disappointing thing happened with China because the plague flowed in. And that wasn't supposed to happen, and it could have been stopped.”

Decisions such as imposing tariffs or visa restrictions against Chinese officials over the government's crackdown of Hong Kong have prompted internal debate over how far the U.S. should go.

“Hong Kong is clearly losing its freedom, China is now breaking longstanding rules and laws and treaties, that means Hong Kong will be treated differently,” top White House economic adviser Kudlow said Thursday on CNBC, adding that the country “has made a huge mistake.”

But the Uighur bill may pose less political risk for the president. China hawks and human-rights groups have begun to express frustration that the administration has been reluctant to respond to China's abuses and take broader actions to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.

Small Steps

The administration so far has taken small steps toward penalizing China over its treatment of ethnic minorities.

The Commerce Department announced last week it would add China's Ministry of Public Security's Institute of Forensic Science and eight Chinese companies to the entity list, which will result in new restrictions on access to U.S. technology. The department accused them of human rights violations and abuses committed against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.

Earlier: House Republicans Go to Court to Try to Stop Proxy Voting

The China legislation was passed under a new House rule allowing members to cast proxy votes for other lawmakers who stayed home during the pandemic -- an approach that may raise concern at the White House.

But McCaul said he didn't think that would affect Trump's support for the measure. Republicans have sued Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats over the practice, which they argue is unconstitutional.

“We'll see how that lawsuit goes,” McCaul said. “There was such overwhelming bipartisan support that even if you canceled the proxy votes, I think there'd be a sufficient number of votes to have passed it.”