The current US approach to promoting human rights in East Asia is too geopolitical, punitive, & inconsistent. It promotes backlash without tangible improvements.

The US must adopt a new multipronged approach to human rights promotion in East Asia. 1/10 https://quincyinst.org/2021/01/11/toward-an-inclusive-balanced-regional-order-a-new-u-s-strategy-in-east-asia/

First, it is critical the US separate human rights promotion from military, economic, and geopolitical competition. Punitive linkage of HRs to geopolitical grievance provokes nationalist backlash in target countries & risks undermining indigenous human rights movements. 2/10

In the same vein, the US should not ignore or downplay human rights abuses in countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, or India as part of a gambit to draw them into an anti–China containment network. 3/10

Second, the US should promote HRs multilaterally, not only with Europe, but also with Asian nations or other partners from relevant cultural communities, such as Muslim-majority nations when objecting to China’s abuse of Uighur Muslims or Myanmar’s abuse of Rohingya Muslims. 4/10

The US should also deepen its engagement in UN institutions — not in spite of but because of their flaws — in order to strengthen norms from within and counter efforts by China and others to downplay civic, political, religious, and indigenous rights. 5/10

Third, the US should provide targeted support to oppressed peoples via more welcoming refugee & asylum policy; targeted diplomacy to dissuade countries from extraditing political dissidents; protection of foreign nationals in the US; & funding to preserve diaspora cultures. 6/10

Congress should also strengthen accountability in US sales of military & police equipment, tech, & training that abet foreign repression (such as Duterte’s extrajudicial killings) & prevent American companies from profiting from repression (such as forced labor in Xinjiang). 7/10

The United States also must do more to ensure that economic sanctions against countries in the region do not harm civilians. More proactively, Washington should also increase its humanitarian aid to low-income nations in East Asia, such as North Korea. 8/10

Fourth, the US should also enter direct dialogues with repressive governments on human rights issues. Such dialogues signal that the US prioritizes a matter and can help facilitate change when underlying conditions in the target country are already shifting favorably. 9/10

Finally, America must enact major domestic reforms to enable it to set a more credible example of democratic health and human rights protection. This includes preventing discrimination against Asian Americans and visitors and immigrants from China and East Asia. 10/10

Read more on what a new approach to human rights promotion in East Asia should entail in this new report by @Dalzell60, @JessLee_DC, and myself at https://quincyinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/A-New-Strategy-in-East-Asia.pdf

@JoeBiden @Transition46