Trump Has 'No Interest' in China Human Rights, Dissident's Lawyer Says

President Donald Trump and his GOP allies are leaning heavily on China as the November election approaches. A tough stance on Beijing is a central part of the administration's foreign policy, and an issue they think the Democrats and their nominee Joe Biden are weak on.

Foreign policy does not traditionally define American elections, though the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the turmoil it has wrought at home means China has ceased to become a solely foreign problem.

The administration is embarking on a broad effort to decouple from and contain China, justifying its approach by pointing to Beijing's territorial expansion, its trade practices and human rights abuses at home.

In both Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarianism has made international headlines and helped breed bipartisan opposition to Beijing.

At this week's Republican National Convention, GOP figures lauded Trump's China strategy and repeatedly blamed Beijing for the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, dissident Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng endorsed Trump and framed the confrontation with China as a fight for the world's future.

But his appearance prompted criticism from fellow exiled Chinese lawyer Teng Biao, who has previously represented Chen and described himself as a "good friend" of the human rights activist. Teng said he was "stunned" by Chen's appearance, according to The South China Morning Post.

"For Chinese human rights defenders, there is zero logical consistency to supporting Trump," Teng said. "I am a good friend and [former] lawyer of his. [But] I completely oppose what he is doing," he added.

Newsweek has contacted Chen to request comment on Teng's remarks.

Chen fled China with U.S. help in 2012. After escaping from house arrest, he made it to the U.S. embassy in Beijing with the help of a network of anti-CCP activists. He was then brought to the U.S.

Though his escape was facilitated by President Barack Obama's administration, Chen has since become a Trump supporter, praising the president's tough rhetoric and action on China.

He has also been criticized for his apparent shift to the right, and on Monday tweeted a video of a pro-Trump protester damaging a Black Lives Matter mural in New York while shouting at others to take off their protective face masks. A caption reading, "Freedom" accompanied the post.

"The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop [the] CCP's aggression," Chen said on Thursday.

"President Trump has led on this, and we need the other countries to join him in this fight, a fight for our world's future," he added.

Trump has been criticized for not doing enough to address China's human rights abuses. According to former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump privately encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to build internment camps for Muslim minority groups in the far western province of Xinjiang, where around 1 million people are thought to have been detained.

Trump also told Axios in June that he did not impose sanctions over the camps so as not to scupper a potential trade deal, while in summer 2019 multiple outlets reported that Trump told Xi he would not publicly comment on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong to protect trade negotiations.