On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton's new book discussing Trump's approach to China — and one of Bolton's allegations is that Trump approved of China's crackdown on the mostly-Muslim Uighur population.
"Beijing’s repression of its Uighur citizens also proceeded apace," wrote Bolton. "Trump asked me at the 2018 White House Christmas dinner why we were considering sanctioning China over its treatment of the Uighurs, a largely Muslim people who live primarily in China’s northwest Xinjiang Province."
"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," continued Bolton. "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."
The treatment of the Uighurs has provoked an international outcry and spurred fears the Communist Party is attempting an ethnic cleansing.