Uyghur: very little impact on US agenda - Howard French

Howard French

The Uyghur, the Turkish minority in Eastern western China, have very little impact on the US agenda towards China, says former China correspondent and journalism professor Howard French on the website of UNPO.org.

UNPO:

  “I don’t think that they [Uyghurs] will have a decisive impact on American foreign policy towards China,” said Howard French, a China expert at Columbia Journalism School. Realpolitik dictates foreign policy priorities, and human rights are not on top of that list, he said. With volatile issues at stake from North Korea and Iran to Syria, where the US needs China’s cooperation, many observers suggest America would be reluctant to alienate China... 

But that does not mean China should ignore the grumblings of the Uyghurs, French said. “If this was a human being and we are talking about medical terms, we would say that it is a chronic condition,” he said. “It’s not going away.”

More on the website of UNPO.

Howard French is a speaker on the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at our meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers request form.

The China Weekly Hangout will focus next Thursday on the global ambitions of China's internet companies. For our announcement, please go here, or you can register directly at our event page. You can see all previous editions on our YouTube channel. 

On November 1, on the China Weekly Hangout, the US-China relations were also discussed by Janet Carmosky, Greg Anderson and Fons Tuinstra.

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