Trump plans to sign bill pressuring China over Uighur Muslim crackdown: Source

US President Donald Trump plans to sign legislation calling for sanctions on Chinese officials accountable for oppressing Uighur Muslims, a source familiar with the problem said on Monday without offering a timeframe for the signing.

The bill, which passed the US House of Representatives and the Senate with bipartisan support last month, calls for sanctions against those accountable for repression of Uighurs and other Muslim groups in China's Xinjiang province, where in fact the United Nations estimates greater than a million Muslims have been detained in camps.

The Chinese embassy in Washington repeated a prior statement noting that the bill "blatantly smears China's counterterrorism and deradicalization measures and seriously interferes in China's internal affairs," which China "deplores and firmly opposes."

"We urge the united states to immediately rectify its mistake, stop using Xinjiang-related issues to intervene in China's internal affairs and refrain from going even further down the incorrect path," the embassy added.

The bill's progress comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic's origins and a recent Chinese bid to curb Hong Kong freedoms with a new national security law. China denies mishandling the outbreak and has said america should stop interfering in Hong Kong and Chinese affairs.

Trump said the other day he was not considering imposing sanctions on Chinese President Xi Jinping personally over Beijing's push to impose the legislation in Hong Kong. However the Republican president recently ordered his administration to commence eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, and said Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as in charge of "smothering - absolutely smothering - Hong Kong's freedom."

The Uighur legislation, proposed by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, singles out Xinjiang's Communist Party secretary, Chen Quanguo, a member of China’s powerful Politburo, as in charge of “gross human rights violations” against them.

Bloomberg previously Monday reported news of the bill's signing.