Donald Trump among world leaders to address UN General Assembly on Tuesday
US President Donald Trump will address the 74th session of the UN General Assembly today with a speech that emphasises protecting global religious freedoms and upholding democracy.
Trump may call China out against its detention of at least a million Uighur and other minority Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Per Amnesty International, China forces detainees to undergo political indoctrination and cultural assimilation.
While Beijing describes its actions as containing terrorism, Washington has dubbed them as an attempt at erasing minority cultures and religions. US Secretary of State Mike Pence met with foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on Sunday; he urged them to resist Chinese demand to repatriate ethnic minorities to China, where they are sure to be persecuted.
The US has held off from imposing sanctions on the concerned Chinese officials to prevent Chinese retaliation that could threaten upcoming trade talks in October. Although concrete US action regarding human rights abuses in China remains unlikely in the foreseeable future, it will be successful in drawing international attention towards the issue, should Trump mention it in his speech.
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