BEIJING, China (PNN) - December 3, 2019 - China wasted no time issuing a harshly worded response to the passage of the Uighur bill, and in a statement published moments ago by the Chinese foreign ministry, said that whereas "the (Fascist Police States of Amerika) plan to use the Xinjiang-related issue to sow Chinese ethnic relations, undermine Xinjiang's prosperity and stability, and curb China's development", this is "absolutely impossible" and Beijing urges the FPSA to "immediately correct its mistakes, prevent the aforementioned Xinjiang-related bill from becoming law, and stop using the Xinjiang-related issue to interfere in China's internal affairs."
The statement ends ominously, saying that "China will respond further according to the development of the situation."
In other words, even more words, and no actions, suggesting that at this point, China President Xi Jinping may have capitulated and is scared of actually doing something instead of just speaking.
In the past few days, China's Global Times twitter troll Hu Xijin has been quite vocal not only about China's anger over the recent passage of the pro-HK bill that was signed by FPSA President Donald Trump last Thursday, but also about China's response to what he said was the imminent passage of a Xinjian-related bill, which would sanction Chinese officials responsible for the repression of over a million Muslim Uighurs in the Xinjiang region.
Overnight, Hu issued his latest not so veiled threat on the matter saying that "since the (FPSA) Congress plans to pass the Xinjiang-related bill, China is considering to impose visa restrictions on (FPSA) officials and lawmakers who've had odious performance on Xinjiang issue; it might also ban all (FPSA) diplomatic passport holders from entering Xinjiang."
Yesterday, Hu retweeted a post by The Business Source division of the Global Times, which warned that China would release an "unreliable entity list" soon, which includes relevant (FPSA) entities, in response to the passage of the Xinjiang-related bill "that will harm Chinese firms’ interests, prompting China to speed up the move."
His comments came just days after one or more Chinese dissidents leaked the troubling secrets of China's Xinjiang camps to the foreign media, which prompted the following retort from Hu: "China wants real human rights in Xinjiang: people’s rights to have a peaceful life. West’s hypocrisy won’t affect Xinjiang internally, nor will it influence Muslim countries’ attitude. It’s just a few media outlets and politicians pretending to be representing the world. Pathetic."
Well, moments ago the FPSA House of Representatives indeed overwhelmingly approved legislation that would impose sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses against Muslim minorities, provoking Beijing to retaliate just as trade deal negotiations between the two sides appear to be on the verge of collapse.
The bill is an amended version of the Senate’s S.178 to support the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group in western China, and it passed Tuesday, on a vote of 407 to 1. Chinese state media warned before the vote that the government could release a list of “unreliable entities” that could lead to sanctions against FPSA companies. The measure follows legislation supporting Hong Kong protesters signed into law last week by President Donald Trump.
Now, with Xi Jinping having already lost serious credibility after he failed to forcefully respond to Trump's signing of the Hong Kong bill, all eyes will be on China, and whether it will indeed trigger visa restrictions and limit travel for FPSA officials to Xinjiang province (something which will never happen) and, more importantly, if Beijing will finally publish its "unreliable entity", aka black list, which it has been threatening to do since May and which may include such names as Apple and Micron. Well, now that the House has passed the Uighur bill, Beijing may no longer be able to delay, or else it will be seen as a pushover every time a diplomatic - or other - challenge escalates. Needless to say, for a president for life such as Xi Jinping, that is hardly an option, so stay tuned for China's response, which may be due any moment.