CHINESE WARNINGS
China has warned that the Uighur bill would affect bilateral cooperation, raising concerns about the impact on trade talks, less than two weeks before a new round of U.S. tariffs already threatening another breakdown is scheduled to take effect.
In editorials on Thursday, Chinese official media called for harsh reprisals in response to bill.
The English-language China Daily called the bill a "stab in the back, given Beijing's efforts to stabilize the already turbulent China-U.S. relationship" and warned of reprisals.
"It seems an odds-on bet that more (sanctions) can be expected if the latest approval for State Department meddling goes into the statute books," it said.
China's envoy to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said on Wednesday the two countries were trying to resolve their differences over trade, but "destructive forces" were trying to drive a wedge between them.
The White House has yet to say whether Trump would sign or veto the bill, which contains a provision allowing the president to waive sanctions if he determines it to be in the national interest.
No dates has yet been scheduled for a vote on the bill in the Republican-controlled Senate, a decision which rests with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senator Jim Risch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said lawmakers would proceed with caution.
“Because of the relationship we have with China, because of the trade negotiations going on, and everything else, it's important that we don't do anything that would cause those negotiations not to bear fruit," Risch told Reuters.
