The EconomistJuly 20th 2019 The world this week 72 thatcountryfirst—andbeen
rejected—beforetheycan
claimsanctuaryintheUnited
States.Civil-rightsgroupssued
tooverturntheorder.
A heck of a layover
Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’spresi-
dent, upset China by dawdling
in America while on her way to
and from the Caribbean. She
was scheduled to spend four
days on American soil—some-
what longer than is necessary
to change planes. Her meetings
with American politicians
infuriated the People’s Repub-
lic, which insists that no one
should treat Taiwan like a
country. America also an-
nounced a $2bn arms sale to
Taiwan. Meanwhile, the Kuo-
mintang, Taiwan’s main oppo-
sition party, chose as its candi-
date for presidential elections
next year Han Kuo-yu, a mayor,
rather than Terry Gou, the
founder of Foxconn, the
world’s biggest contract manu-
facturer of mobile phones.America barred four Burmese
generals from entering the
country, saying that they were
involved in Myanmar’s“gross
violations of human rights”.
The Burmese army helped lead
a pogrom that sent 700,
members of the Rohingya
minority fleeing into neigh-
bouring Bangladesh in 2017.Ambassadors from 37 coun-
tries signed a letter praising
China’s “contribution to the
international human-rights
cause”, including in its restive
western region of Xinjiang,
where China has locked up
perhaps 1m people, mostly
Muslim Uighurs, in
“vocational training” camps.
The signatories were all from
authoritarian regimes with
dodgy human-rights records.
An earlier letter condemning
the camps was signed by 22
democracies.Unrest continued in Hong
Kongover a law that would
allow criminal suspects to besentfortrialinmainland
China.Thebillhasbeen
shelved,butprotesterswantit
formallywithdrawn.A hit on “The Squad”Donald Trump told four
non-white Democratic
congresswomen, two of them
Muslim, to “go back” to where
they came from and fix their
“own” corrupt governments
before criticising America.
Three of the women were born
in the United States; the other
is an American citizen. A reso-
lution to impeach Mr Trump
over his words attracted 95votes, losing heavily. It was the
first time such a motion
against Mr Trump had come to
a vote. A Republican senator
called the women “a bunch of
communists”.Thousands of protesters de-
manded the resignation of
Puerto Rico’sgovernor, Ricar-
do Rosselló. Some threw bot-
tles and fireworks at police,
who responded with tear gas
and rubber bullets. Mr Rosselló
is in trouble after 900 pages of
chat-group messages were
leaked, in which he apparently
referred to a female politician
as a “whore” and suggested
that the usfederal board that
oversees Puerto Rico’s awful
finances should commit a sex
act with itself.Alex Acosta resigned as
America’s labour secretary. As
a prosecutor in 2008, Mr
Acosta had struck a plea deal
with Jeffrey Epstein, a finan-
cier accused of having sex with
under-age girls.