American senators of both main parties plan to present bill this week against China for their treatment of minority, dissident and Taiwan groups, emphasizing security and human rights, while President Donald Trump focuses on trade with Beijing.
The three bills have Democratic and Republican sponsors, which is a change with respect to the fierce partisan division that divides Washington.
Trump’s effort to reach economic agreements between the two largest economies in the world has a strong support in Congress, especially among his republican co -religionists, but raised the concern of some defenders of the hard line towards China, who fear that the US government is subtracting importance from security problems.
“It seems that President Trump is interested in negotiating some kind of agreement with China, and gaps are being opened between his approach to China and that of some members of his team, as well as with Congress, which in general has been quite aggressive with China,” said Bonnie Glaser, expert in Asia of the German Marshall Founder of the United States.
The desire for a hard line with China is one of the few truly bipartisan feelings in a perennially divided congress, even though many legislators support Trump’s efforts to rebalance the bilateral commercial relationship.
“The United States cannot afford to be weak against the People’s Republic of China and its aggression worldwide,” said Democrat Jeff Merkley, from Oregon, one of the main drivers of the three bills.
“Regardless of whom the White House occupies, the American values of freedom and human rights must remain in the center of a clear vision and based on principles that guide our leadership on the global stage,” Merkley said.
Trump administration officials said that the president maintains his full commitment to the security issues of Asia-Pacific while driving his commercial agenda and maintains a good personal relationship with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
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This would seek bills focused on China
A bill, co -crocked by Republican John Cornyn, of Texas, would deny the entrance to the United States to officials or former officials of the Chinese government who are considered to participate in the forced repatriation of members of the China Uigur minority.
Human rights groups accuse China of generalized abuses against the Uigures, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority that has about 10 million inhabitants in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies any abuse.
Another bill, co -colored by Republican John Curtis, from Utah, seeks to help Taiwan, since the island faces growing pressure from China. It would support the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan and take other measures to deepen coordination with Taipéi.
China claims the island, democratically governed, as theirs and has never renounced the use of force to submit it to its control. Beijing has intensified military and political pressure against the island in recent years.
A third bill, co -colored by the Republican Dan Sullivan, from Alaska, seeks to combat “transnational repression”: the efforts of any foreign government to transcend its borders to intimidate, harass or harm dissidents, journalists or activists.
Given the deadline imposed by Trump on August 12, the main economic officials of the United States and China will meet in Stock on Monday to try to resolve their old disputes, hoping to extend the truce three months and keep at bay the imposition of considerable tariffs considerably higher.
Trump “worries foreign markets to US trade, and that is what has always worried him. And that will go against many national security imperatives,” said Michael Sobolik, a specialist in relations between the United States and China at the Hudson Institute.
Trump’s Democrats and some republican co -religionists expressed concern for the announcement this month that NVIDIA will resume sales of their H20 artificial intelligence chips to China, days after its executive director met with Trump. This reversed a restriction of the imposed in April that was designed to maintain the most advanced chips out of reach of the Chinese hands.
With Reuters information
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