Chinese President Xi Jinping has drawn global criticism for holding the minority Uighurs in internment camps and other human rights abuses. "Well, there will be repercussions for China and he knows that," Biden said of Xi, when pressed on the issue at the town hall event televised on broadcaster CNN. The United States will reassert its global role in speaking up for human rights, Biden said, adding that he would work with the international community to get China to protect them. "As long as they are engaged in activity that is contrary to basic human rights, it is going to be hard for them to do that," he added. In a two-hour phone call with Xi this month, Biden emphasized the US priority of preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region, where the United States and China are major strategic rivals.

Source: bd News24 February 17, 2021 03:56 UTC