MAGA/Freedom/Liberty: Trump Called Muslim Concentration Camps in China the “Right Thing to Do”

[exGOPer]

Donald Trump reportedly said China’s decision to detain Uighur Muslims in concentration camps was “exactly the right thing to do” and encouraged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to “go ahead with building the camps,” according to a book excerpt published Wednesday by John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser.

Over the past few years, Trump has frequently oscillated between threatening China and lathering on praise for Xi, but Bolton’s revelation, if true, documents one of the more shocking examples of Trump’s cavalier approach to human rights and reverence for authoritarian leaders.

The excerpt, which Bolton published in the Wall Street Journal, contains numerous instances of Trump downplaying human rights concerns in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Last year, when Hong Kong saw massive protests in response to a controversial extradition bill that chipped away at the semiautonomous region’s tenuous independence from China, Trump reportedly said, “I don’t want to get involved,” and, “We have human-rights problems too.” (Note this is something of a common theme for Trump; in an interview back in 2017, the president responded to Bill O’Reilly calling Vladimir Putin a “killer” by saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”)

Bolton also claims that Trump refused to issue a White House statement to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese forces killed scores of pro-democracy demonstrators. “That was 15 years ago,” he reportedly said. “Who cares about it? I’m trying to make a deal. I don’t want anything.”

Still, an even more disturbing anecdote captured by Bolton, who was fired in September 2019 after a series of policy disputes with Trump, concerns the treatment of Uighur Muslims, who have undergone systemic detention, repression, and surveillance under Xi. Here’s how Bolton describes it in the Journal excerpt:


At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council’s top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China.

 

[Cuddles]

who could've seen this coming?

This is ancient news. If we had a president with any sense, he'd use these human rights violations to rally the world around his tariffs. But they're Muslims so he admires the Chinese actions instead.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/17/us/politics/trump-khashoggi-saudi-arabia.html

Top White House Official Involved in Saudi Sanctions Resigns

• 18

WASHINGTON — A top White House official responsible for American policy toward Saudi Arabia resigned on Friday evening, a move that may suggest fractures inside the Trump administration over the response to the brutal killing of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

The official, Kirsten Fontenrose, had pushed for tough measures against the Saudi government, and had been in Riyadh to discuss a raft of sanctions that the American government imposed in recent days against those identified as responsible for the killing, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Specifically, she advocated that Saud al-Qahtani, a top adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, be added to the list, and he ultimately was.

https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-...ggi-e6a22e39-e1a7-423b-98b1-f10843dda814.html

Trump's private line: Khashoggi murder "really bad" but others do it

President Trump has never wanted to make a big deal out of the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA reportedly has concluded was ordered by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Behind the scenes: Trump has privately called the assassination "really bad," but immediately adds that other countries America deals with, including China, do "a lot of bad things," according to sources with direct knowledge. Trump has also privately told associates he thinks it's ridiculous that people are making so much of the Saudi murder of one man, given the brutal practices of countries like China.

President Xi Jinping has detained more than one million Uighurs in internment camps because of their religion. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have spoken out against these camps, but Trump has shied away from publicly condemning this and other Chinese human rights atrocities.

you missed the point entirely. I'm saying if the US chose to propagandize Chinese abuses against its populations it will do so and garner the world's support, who by and large believes the virus originated in Wuhan, regardless of the true origin or Chinese pushed conspiracies.

If you're trying to win support for China, you need to stop using infantile bets to drive a point, and maybe use paragraph breaks.

Ever tried running a company without employees?

Sometimes I wonder if the premature annexation attempts of Hong Kong was to:
1 fill the coffers due to the trade war
2 use Hong Kong as leverage to seal a trade deal. or
3. Do it now, since Trump doesn't care, until his hand was forced by a dem introduced resolution.

For similar action, one may look at the Uyghur

 

[gaussian]

My only question is why didn't Bolton just go straight to the courts? I don't understand the play here. If any of this is true it's pretty damning. That is - unless none of it is admissible in court.

 

[Cuddles]

My only question is why didn't Bolton just go straight to the courts? I don't understand the play here. If any of this is true it's pretty damning. That is - unless none of it is admissible in court.

You got selective amnesia or are playing dumb? Dude went straight to AG, saw the fix was in, and decided to not have that shitshow dumped on his lap.

 

[gaussian]

You got selective amnesia or are playing dumb? Dude went straight to AG, saw the fix was in, and decided to not have that shitshow dumped on his lap.

Actually didn't know he went to the AG. I didn't really care to do any research on it not because I like Trump but I really just couldn't care about controversy #3e140.

Maybe they should pursue charges then. Supporting the persecution of Ughyurs is pretty gross.

 

[Cuddles]

Actually didn't know he went to the AG. I didn't really care to do any research on it not because I like Trump but I really just couldn't care about controversy #3e140.

Maybe they should pursue charges then. Supporting the persecution of Ughyurs is pretty gross.

You ever follow Kashoggi's/sp story?

 

[Spike Trader]

Trump didn't know that Britain was a nuclear power!!!!


Here are 7 stunning details from new report about John Bolton’s explosive book

Though the Trump administration is making a show of trying to stop it, former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book is already making waves.

The New York Times, which received an advance copy of the book before its official publication next week, published a report on Wednesday laying out some of its key revelations.

While Bolton himself is in many ways a duplicitous and untrustworthy figure, his allegations about President Donald Trump are worth taking seriously. We’ve already seen that much of what is going on behind closed doors is nefarious and detrimental to the country — and a person with Bolton’s access would likely know many of the White House’s darkest secrets.

Here are 7 stunning details from the report:

1. Bolton confirms that Trump’s infamous Ukraine quid pro quo was explicit

2. Bolton says that similar incidents occurred with Turkey and China

“The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,” Bolton wrote.
He blames the Democrats for impeaching Trump on grounds that were far too narrow and solely focused on Ukraine, but this complaint is deeply ironic given Bolton’s refusal to testify.

3. Trump tried to get China to help him win re-election, the book claims

Bolton wrote that “the president overtly linked policy to his own political fortunes as he asked [Chinese President] Xi to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election. Mr. Trump, he writes, was ‘pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.’”

4. Trump reportedly did not know Britain is a nuclear power
This is a basic fact about world politics, and yet the president seems to have no clue what’s going on.

5. Trump reportedly asked if Finland is a part of Russia

The report doesn’t say who Trump asked. Hopefully, it wasn’t the Finns. Or the Russians.

6. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly dismissed Trump’s overtures to North Korea as useless
During Mr. Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader, according to the book, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, “He is so full of shit.”

A month later, Mr. Bolton writes, Mr. Pompeo dismissed the president’s North Korea diplomacy, declaring that there was “zero probability of success.”

7. Bolton says he reported cases of Trump’s potential abuses of power to Attorney General Bill Barr

It’s not clear if anything ever came of these reports.

 

[Overnight]

...
He blames the Democrats for impeaching Trump on grounds that were far too narrow and solely focused on Ukraine, but this complaint is deeply ironic given Bolton’s refusal to testify.
...

The bolded bit above means Bolton has no credibility, and so his whole book is just pulp fiction.

 

[Cuddles]

Trump didn't know that Britain was a nuclear power!!!!


Here are 7 stunning details from new report about John Bolton’s explosive book

Though the Trump administration is making a show of trying to stop it, former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book is already making waves.

The New York Times, which received an advance copy of the book before its official publication next week, published a report on Wednesday laying out some of its key revelations.

While Bolton himself is in many ways a duplicitous and untrustworthy figure, his allegations about President Donald Trump are worth taking seriously. We’ve already seen that much of what is going on behind closed doors is nefarious and detrimental to the country — and a person with Bolton’s access would likely know many of the White House’s darkest secrets.

Here are 7 stunning details from the report:

1. Bolton confirms that Trump’s infamous Ukraine quid pro quo was explicit

2. Bolton says that similar incidents occurred with Turkey and China

“The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,” Bolton wrote.
He blames the Democrats for impeaching Trump on grounds that were far too narrow and solely focused on Ukraine, but this complaint is deeply ironic given Bolton’s refusal to testify.

3. Trump tried to get China to help him win re-election, the book claims

Bolton wrote that “the president overtly linked policy to his own political fortunes as he asked [Chinese President] Xi to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election. Mr. Trump, he writes, was ‘pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.’”

4. Trump reportedly did not know Britain is a nuclear power
This is a basic fact about world politics, and yet the president seems to have no clue what’s going on.

5. Trump reportedly asked if Finland is a part of Russia

The report doesn’t say who Trump asked. Hopefully, it wasn’t the Finns. Or the Russians.

6. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly dismissed Trump’s overtures to North Korea as useless
During Mr. Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader, according to the book, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, “He is so full of shit.”

A month later, Mr. Bolton writes, Mr. Pompeo dismissed the president’s North Korea diplomacy, declaring that there was “zero probability of success.”

7. Bolton says he reported cases of Trump’s potential abuses of power to Attorney General Bill Barr

It’s not clear if anything ever came of these reports.

pfft, didn't even cover the concentration camps bit

 

[Cuddles]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/us-s...t-uyghurs.html

Biden administration sanctions two Chinese officials, citing human rights abuses against Uyghurs

• The Biden administration on Monday sanctioned two Chinese officials, citing their roles in serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
• Beijing has previously rejected U.S. charges that it has committed genocide against the Uyghurs, a Muslim population indigenous to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.
• China has also said that allegations of its use of detention camps are groundless and that it instead uses facilities to provide vocational training to help stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism.

The Biden administration on Monday sanctioned two Chinese officials, citing their roles in serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

China’s Wang Junzheng, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, were sanctioned for their connection to “arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs,” the Department of Treasury said in a statement Monday.

Treasury accused China of using repressive tactics for the last five years against Uyghurs and other members of ethnic minorities in the region, including mass detentions and surveillance.

“Targets of this surveillance are often detained and reportedly subjected to various methods of torture and “political reeducation,” Treasury wrote in a statement.

Beijing has previously rejected U.S. charges that it has committed genocide against the Uyghurs, a Muslim population indigenous to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

“Amid growing international condemnation, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “We will continue to stand with our allies around the world in calling for an immediate end to the PRC’s crimes and for justice for the many victims,” the nation’s top diplomat added.