Congress Accelerates Drive To Stop Trump’s China Negotiations, Provoke War with China

Dec. 4, 2019 (EIRNS)—A week after passing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act almost unanimously, which forced President Donald Trump to sign it or face an almost certain override to his veto (although he also include “signing statements” which made it clear he would not act on it), the House has escalated the war drive by passing, 407-1, the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019, which condemns China for the camps established in Xinjiang to provide vocational training and education for the Uighur youth who have been subjected to terrorist propaganda. The bill forces Trump to come up with the names of Chinese officials responsible for the program, to then impose sanctions. The Party Secretary of Xinjiang Chen Quanguo, a member of the Politburo, is specifically named in the bill to be sanctioned. The Senate passed a similar bill in September. After reconciling the two bills it will go to the President’s desk, where Trump will once again face either signing it (probably with signing statements), or vetoing it with a nearly certain override in the Congress, or not signing, in which case it would usually become law after 10 days.

Rep. Chris Smith called the camps “cultural genocide,” while Sen. Bob Menendez called them “barbaric and abhorrent.” Nancy Pelosi called them an “outrage to the collective conscience of the world.” What do these upstanding citizens call the wars on Iraq, Libya and Syria?

China has responded with mounting anger at these provocations. The Foreign Ministry today condemned the move saying the bill “wantonly smears China’s efforts to eliminate and combat extremism.... We urge the U.S. to immediately correct its mistake, to stop the above bill on Xinjiang from becoming law, to stop using Xinjiang as a way to interfere in China’s domestic affairs.”

As EIR has repeatedly shown, including a report on a visit to the facilities by EIR representative Christine Bierre from France, the camps have served the dual purpose of providing education on Chinese language and civics, while Muslim scholars correct the terrorists’ subversion of Islamic teachings which many of them have been subjected to. Vocation training prepares them for jobs in the rapidly expanding economy, where Xinjiang has become the hub for the Silk Road Economic Belt.

There have been no new terrorist incidents in Xinjiang for three years. Compare that to the British methods of counter-terror implemented by Bush and Obama—mass murder of mostly civilians in countries which were in fact anti-terrorism, leaving the targetted nations more under the control of terrorists than before the destruction, as seen in Iraq and Libya, and attempted in Syria until Russia stepped in.