The Wall Street Journal - 31.07.2019

A10| Wednesday, July 31, 2019 *** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke with U.S. Trade Representative

Robert Lighthizer and TreasurySecretaryStevenMnuchin in May.

CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS

WORLDWATCH

An official at the state-run

emergency service, said 14 peo-

ple were also injured in the

crash. He said the death toll

could rise as some were in criti-

cal condition.

Footage on social media

showed the plane was flying

very low before it quickly went

down.

—Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

Iran, U.A.E. Discuss

Maritime Security

United Arab Emirates officials
arrived in Iran to discuss mari-
time security in the Persian Gulf,
amid efforts to address threats
to commercial ships passing
through the important oil supply
route that have heightened re-
gional tensions.
A U.A.E. Coast Guard delega-
tion planned to discuss issues
related to maritime border coop-
eration and the flow of shipping
traffic, including illegal move-
ments, according to Iranian
state-run media.
The official visit is rare for
the U.A.E., which is backing a
U.S. push to sanction Tehran and
is also fighting pro-Iranian rebels
in Yemen. The two sides last
held such a meeting in 2013, the
media said.
The meeting coincides with a
brewing crisis between Iran and
the West in the Persian Gulf re-
gion, which threatens the U.A.E.’s
reputation as a safe business
hub in the turbulent Middle East.
—Rory Jones

PAKISTAN

Army Plane Crashes

Into Homes; 19 Dead

A Pakistani military plane

crashed into a residential area

before dawn on Tuesday, killing

at least 19 people, most of them

in their homes on the outskirts

of the city of Rawalpindi, offi-

cials said.

Fires, damaged houses and

debris were visible in Mora Kalu

village near Rawalpindi after day-

break.

Rescue officials said 14 civil-

ians, including children, and all

five crew aboard the aircraft

were killed, including the two pi-

lots. The cause of the crash

wasn’t immediately known.

SAHARA HEAT WAVE REACHES GREENLAND: The record temperatures affecting parts of Europe

brought unseasonably warm weather to the Ilulissat Icefjord on Tuesday.

SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES

month to restart negotiations,

with Mr. Trump saying afterward

that China agreed to step up ag-

ricultural purchases, while U.S.

companies would soon be al-

lowed to resume sales to Huawei.

Even so, progress in carry-

ing out those concessions has

been slow.

der negotiation before the im-

passe. That draft required Beijing

to make structural and legal

changes to pare back subsidies

and technology-transfer require-

ments the U.S. side says are un-

fair. After negotiators thought a

deal was in sight, the Chinese

side rejected the draft as one-

sided.

Mr. Trump and Chinese Presi-

dent Xi Jinping agreed late last

SHANGHAI—Chinese and U.S.
negotiators resumed trade talks,
taking tentative steps to over-
come mutual mistrust and lim-
ited political appetite for a break-
through agreement after weeks
of recriminations.
The U.S. team, led by U.S.
Trade Representative Robert
Lighthizer and Treasury Secre-
tary Steven Mnuchin, gathered
for dinner Tuesday with the
Chinese side, led by Chinese
Vice Premier Liu He, at the
Fairmont Peace Hotel, a Shang-
hai landmark on the city’s riv-
erfront, according to a person
familiar with the situation. The
negotiators then met for a
more formal round of talks at a

BYCHAODENG

WORLD NEWS

government guesthouse on

Wednesday.

Both sides are looking to the

other to demonstrate goodwill,

said people briefed on the dis-

cussions, with the U.S. expecting

a pickup in Chinese orders for

American farm goods and Beijing

waiting for Washington to relax

restrictions on Chinese telecom-

munications gear maker Huawei

Technologies Co.’s access to U.S.

technology.

“In trade negotiations, noth-

ing is decided until everything is

decided, although it’s possible

there will be some baby steps,

some partial landing zones, to

build confidence,” said James

Green, a former U.S. diplomat

and trade official who is now an

adviser at McLarty Associates, a

consulting firm.

Apart from small steps, how-

ever, expectations are low for sig-

nificant progress in resolving a

trade dispute that has rattled

global markets and seen both

sides slap punitive tariffs on

about half the more than $

billion in goods they trade.

President Trump, in a series

of tweets Tuesday morning,

ratcheted up pressure on Beijing

to quickly reach a deal and

warned that if he were re-

elected, the terms of an agree-

ment “will be much tougher than

what we are negotiating now...or

no deal at all.”

Later, in comments to report-

ers at the White House, he said,

“We’re either going to make a

great deal or we’re not going to

make a deal at all.”

He said he believed China

would prefer to negotiate with a

Democratic president. “They’ll

pray that Trump loses,” Mr.

Trump said.

A senior Republican senator

opposed to tariffs brushed aside

Mr. Trump’s comments.

“I don’t think you ought to

make anything out of it except to

forget the tweet,” said Sen.

Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chair-

man of the Senate Finance Com-

mittee. “Just forget his tweet and

say, ‘What a blessing it is that, in

Shanghai, Lighthizer and

Mnuchin are sitting down with

their negotiators now, and when

they’re talking there’s a chance

of getting something done.’ ”

After negotiations appeared

to be close but then foundered in

May, both sides blamed the other

for the breakdown. Since then,

each has side taken steps, from

the Huawei limits to new Chinese

rules on cybersecurity, that are

likely to impede a broader agree-

ment.

“You can assume the remain-

ing challenges are the most diffi-

cult ones to deal with. I don’t

think one round in Shanghai can

resolve it,” said Eric Zheng,

chairman of the American Cham-

ber of Commerce in Shanghai.

U.S. negotiators are trying to

see what can be salvaged from

the lengthy draft agreement un-

U.S., China Restart Trade Talks

Top officials seek signs

of goodwill after mutual

recriminations, as

Trump tweets threats

BYNATASHAKHAN

Hong Kong Authorities Charge Dozens With Rioting

A police officer pointed a gun at protesters in Hong Kong during a Tuesday demonstration in the Kwai Chung district. Protesters have taken to the streets for weeks.

BILLY H.C. KWOK/GETTY IMAGES

 Huawei sales boom despite

U.S. sanction................................B

oting, police said Tuesday. One

person was charged with pos-

session of offensive weapons.

Digital fliers begun circulat-

ing on the Telegram messag-

ing app urging them to rally

outside the court.

Declaring protests riots has

been opposed by activists be-

cause of the tough prison sen-

tences the rioting charge can

bring.

cers at the scene with bricks

and sharpened iron rods.

Many had marched to the

district after officials re-

stricted the protest route,

even though the protesters

were warned that their actions

constituted illegal assembly.

Police arrested 32 men and

17 women, aged between 16

and 41. Of those, 45 were

charged, including 44 with ri-

nents have continued to regu-

larly hold protests that have

widened to oppose Beijing’s

tightening restrictions on the

city’s freedoms.

On Sunday, a central dis-

trict in Hong Kong became an

urban battlefield as police

shot rounds of tear gas to dis-

perse protesters and began

making rapid arrests. Police

said protesters attacked offi-

In recent weeks, the city

has been gripped in a worsen-

ing spiral of violence between

police and protesters that

marks the biggest social and

political crisis in the former

British colony since it re-

turned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Although Mrs. Lam sus-

pended the controversial ex-

tradition bill that sparked the

demonstrations, many oppo-

licly support the city’s govern-

ment and urge authorities to

punish violent protesters and

restore order.

Neither Beijing nor Hong

Kong’s leader, Chief Executive

Carrie Lam, has signaled they

are prepared to make further

concessions that even some

pro-Beijing figures in the city

say are necessary to help quell

the troubles.

HONG KONG—Authorities
on Tuesday charged 44 people
with rioting, an offense that
can carry a multiyear prison
sentence, as the city’s Beijing-
backed government takes a
tougher stance to try to re-
store order after weeks of in-
creasingly volatile protests.
It was the first time offi-
cials used the charge since
their move to win legislative
approval for a bill authorizing
extradition to the mainland
drew as many as two million
people onto the streets and
plunged the city into political
crisis in early June.
Soon after the charges be-
came known, hundreds of peo-
ple swarmed a police station
in the urban district of Kwai
Chung, where some of those
charged were being held. They
were protesting the decision,
underscoring the risks the
government faces of provoking
further unrest with a harsh re-
sponse.
Near midnight, dozens of
protesters faced off with po-
lice wearing riot gear outside
the police station, with videos
on local media showing many
in pouring rain chanting “re-
lease the martyrs.”
On Wednesday morning,
hundreds outside a courtroom
where some of the suspects
were to appear chanted “re-
lease the honorable fighters.”
The rioting charges came a
day after Beijing’s top office
for Hong Kong affairs held a
rare news conference to pub-

gram targeting ethnic Uighurs

and other Muslims in Xinjiang,

which rights groups and former

detainees say is a campaign to

forcibly assimilate minority

groups in the region with the

country’s Han Chinese majority.

In a bid to reinforce Bei-

jing’s portrayal of the intern-

ment campaign as a voca-

tional-training program, two

senior Xinjiang officials offered

a rare update on the status of

the people sent to the camps.

Experts estimate more than

one million Uighurs and other

ethnic minorities have been

detained under the program.

“The majority of personnel

who received education and

training have returned to society

and gone back to their homes,”

Alken Tuniaz, a Xinjiang vice

governor, told reporters. “The

majority have successfully se-

cured employment,” getting jobs

and starting businesses.

Shohrat Zakir, Xinjiang’s

governor and No. 2 official,

said the “vast majority” of

people who have left the

camps have become productive

members of society. “More

than 90% of them have found

jobs that they find suitable and

like, and are earning consider-

able incomes,” he said.

Tuesday’s briefing—which

featured performances by eth-

nic-minority musicians and

dancers—is part of China’s

campaign to counter Western-

led criticism of its treatment of

Muslims in Xinjiang.

When asked to give an esti-

mate on how many people are

in the camps, Mr. Tuniaz de-

murred, saying the figure is

fluid because people constantly

go in and out of the facilities.

The officials’ vague state-

ments drew skepticism from

academics and Uighur activists

living abroad. They said many

detainees may live under close

supervision and other restric-

tions after release, or could be

forced to work in tightly po-

liced factories in Xinjiang or

elsewhere in China.

Mr. Zakir, who also is Xinji-

ang’s top Uighur official, has

been prominent in China’s ef-

forts to defuse criticism of its

policies in the region. Since

last year, he repeatedly has de-

fended Xinjiang’s mass-deten-

tion program in remarks to

media and visiting foreign offi-

cials, portraying the camps as

generously equipped voca-

tional schools that form a bul-

wark for social stability.

—Eva Dou

contributed to this article.

BEIJING—The majority of
people sent to re-education
camps in China’s restive Xinji-
ang region have been released
and found work, senior offi-
cials said, without offering
specific numbers or evidence
to support their claims that the
program of mass internment of
Muslims has been a success.
The government used a
briefing Tuesday to extend the
defense of its detention pro-

BYCHUNHANWONG

Beijing Says Most Xinjiang Detainees Released, Offers No Evidence

tween North Korean leader

Kim Jong Un and President

Trump at the Korean demilita-

rized zone. The two sides at

the time agreed to restart nu-

clear talks that had stalled fol-

lowing a breakdown at Febru-

ary’s summit in Vietnam.

The Kim regime has criti-

cized a planned U.S.-South Ko-

rea military exercise, among

other issues. Before the past

week’s weapons launches, the

North last test-fired missiles in

May, conducting two tests

within five days of each other.

North Korean state media

had no immediate comment.

In Washington, a senior ad-

ministration official said the

U.S. was aware of reports

about the launch and was mon-

itoring the situation. South Ko-

rean Defense Minister Jeong

Kyeong-doo said after the

launches that North Korea

should be considered an adver-

sary if it continued to threaten

the South.

—Courtney McBride

contributed to this article.

SEOUL—North Korea fired

two short-range ballistic mis-

siles off its east coast early

Wednesday, South Korea’s mil-

itary said, the second weapons

test in less than a week as the

Kim regime appeared to be try-

ing to pressure the U.S. amid

stalled nuclear talks.

The missiles were fired from

North Korea’s South Hamgyong

province and traveled about

155 miles to the northeast,

South Korea’s military said.

The test occurred six days

after the North launched two

short-range ballistic missiles,

which military experts believe

shared the attributes of a Rus-

sian Iskander missile. Pyong-

yang conducted the latest test

from the same area used dur-

ing last week’s launch, a

spokesman for Seoul’s Defense

Ministry said.

Pyongyang’s state-run me-

dia has grown angrier in recent

weeks despite an impromptu

meeting late last month be-

BYTIMOTHYW.MARTIN

North Korea Launches

Two Missiles in Test