US House votes to send China sanctions bill to Trump’s desk as tensions escalate – CNBC

by

While adding fuel to the already heated relations between the US and China, CNBC conveyed the news that the US House of Representatives got the votes for a bill to sanction Chinese officials in Xinjiang issues.

Key quotes

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation calling for sanctions against Chinese officials for the detention and torture of Uighur Muslims in the country’s western region of Xinjiang as tensions between the U.S. and China continue to escalate. 

The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate earlier this month, will now head to President Donald Trump, who has not said whether he intends to sign it into law. 

China has warned that it will retaliate against any sanctions imposed and denies the allegations of abuse inside its re-education camps, which are believed to house as many as a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and members of other minority groups.

Market reaction

With Hong Kong offering background music to the US-China tussle, the market’s risk-tone sentiment weighs on any such news suggesting tough relations between the world’s top two economies. That said, AUD/USD pauses its recovery moves from 0.6567 while stepping back from the recent high of 0.6627 to 0.6620 amid the early Asian session on Thursday.