No Western government really cares about human rights unless it's opportune. Why doesn't anyone put Saudi Arabia on a blacklist for human rights violations?

Honestly they are rich and while they might be a disaster as a government they are firmly in our pocket.

The House of Saud figured out years ago that their position makes them very useful.

> Why doesn't anyone put Saudi Arabia on a blacklist for human rights violations

Canada has basically cut diplomatic ties with KSA (more like they cut ties with us after we criticized their human rights record). Good riddance and I was proud to see it.

But despite pretty good domestic production of your own, you guys still use the oil though. That's kind of the point.

Not only do you still use the Kingdom's oil, but even Kazakhstan, and Algeria's as well.

I see it the other way; it's telling that KSA didn't cut the oil off along with their other threats and actions because they realized it would only hurt them more than us. Just a pointless temper tantrum while they remain utterly dependent on foreign exports of their oil.

Sadly western governments barely care even if it is opportune

The lack of serious reaction over Jamal Khashoggi is sad and telling.

Because the European Union lacks a spine and is too busy infighting among themselves.

Just remind you that Saudi Arabia the BFF of US is not respecting the human right of women, that is around 50% of the population if my math is right and women are human too.

Oh right I forgot the EU stands up to Saudi arabia

No I don't think the US is at (economic) war with China for human rights. The US is at war with China for economic reasons. It also happens to hurt China at a time China is particularly egregiously violating human rights, so it's a double win for the US. Why the EU won't grow a similarly economically convenient spine is anyone's guess.

China is a far bigger threat than Saudi Arabia ever was anyway. Moreover, to the Trump administration's credit, they are trying to remove foreign dependence on oil. You can believe that once this is achieved or another suitable energy store is found, Saudi Arabia will be the next economy to collapse under the weight of being unable to sell to anyone.

The freaking US government did not mentioned the human rights so I am not sure why you try to insinuate that human rights are even a slight reason why this conflict is happening.

I can only assume that many US citizens dislike the idea to become citizens to the no 2 country in the world so anything goes , including false things.

The parent commenter has never said that human rights were a reason for the conflict happening. They essentially just said that human rights issues in China being addressed alongside this economic war is a nice and convenient bonus.

It would be a nice bonus if something positive would come of it, It is not a bonus for the "US has a spine" spin OP presented. Is like I pay someone to help an old lady to cross the street and you start praising him and ignore the fact he never would have done it without the money. The guy has no fucking virtue and if he now makes a selfie of himself helping the lady and pointing fingers at others is ... deceitful , but maybe the guy is so narcissistic that in his own mind he is an actual virtuous man, helping old ladies only when he has something to gain.

I am not insinuating that human rights are a reason the conflict it's happening. I just said I think it's nice that these sanctions hurt china at a time they are violating human rights. That's a completely different statement. Please read.

Then we are off topic, it all started by accusing some countries that don't have a spine what I interpreted as a moral spine and not geo/political/economical related stuff with the bonus of hurting people you dislike.

You can fight China on human rights without fighting everyone on human rights. Why let perfect be the enemy of the good? Should we support china simply because we haven't fought Saudi Arabia on this?

Can you link me to the Trump human right demands?

So what? Dollar bills make for pretty good spines. I'll take it over the EU's lack of one.

Can you quote some official document from US that even mentions a single human right demand? Because if you refer on some keyboard worries on twitter then there are probably EU worriers too though they might not be a CEO of a big company that seeks a bit of PR points..

Sure, Congress is in the process of passing the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 [1] with the stated goal of "countering the totalitarian Chinese government’s widespread and horrific human rights abuses" [2].

The State Department published the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices [3] which openly documents China's many human rights issues, issues that China is trying to censor and challenge.

The State Department has additionally announced visa restrictions on Chinese officials suspected of being involved in the detention and human rights abuses of millions of Uyghur Muslims and other minority groups. From the CNN article [4] (Pompeo is the US Secretary of State):

> "The United States calls on the People's Republic of China to immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang, release all those arbitrarily detained, and cease efforts to coerce members of Chinese Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate," Pompeo wrote. "The United States will continue to review its authorities to respond to these abuses."

I'd love to see similar actions taken by the EU and EU member states. If you have any examples of EU action already, you should post them because I may have missed news about it.

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/178...

[2] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3026982/us-...

[3] https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-country-reports-on-human-...

[4] https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/politics/xinjiang-visa-restri...

Thank you for your involved reply, though even from your article you can read this

"Experts said the bill’s passage represented progress on the issue but cautioned it would be only symbolic if the executive branch failed to act on its proposals."

EU also has similar symbolic gestures of condemnations and stuff.

This is my opinions as a citizen from an EU country with less then 20 million population, we know that:

1 things are not that good economically and it is stupid to get involved into a fight between 2 giants.

2 the population is not sure if what we know about China is not exaggerated 100 times by some interests similarly as the Saudi Arabia issues are minimized

3 it is well know US uses false pretexts to invade country, change governments uses economical pressure to force passing of different laws or blocking laws to protect is'x big companies interests

Go ask someone from South America , Africa or other non EU or US country and see if they think there is any genuime concern for human rights from the Trump administration,

I think we will have to disagree on this topic though, you are probably to close to the topic to have a unbiased opinion

IMO - the EU is a bit more calculated in their political/trade maneuvers, and does not start international confrontations with the same propensity the US does because multiple nations' economies are at stake in a union.

Also, the US political/trade situation is not entirely certain given elections in 1 year. The EU doesn't know how this is going to play out yet. It's an international poker game.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind. The EU needs to position itself so that it can make beneficial deals, both with the US and China.

Coincidentally, environmentalism would lead the EU to freeing itself from the shackles of the petrodollar. I’m all for that.

Because this posturing is purely about the self imposed trade war US is having with China.

One cannot seriously claim that Huawei selling an Android phone with Google Play on it would harm US national security, yet that is the official reason for banning it.

US didn’t care about this issue before they needed more reasons to ban more chinese companies. ”Trade war” as a straight reason would not go well, it’s likely even against WTO rules.

China has been violating WTO rules for decades and faces no repercussions within that framework.

Realpolitik. You don't side with the dying empire against the rising one just because the old one would treat you better.

The world is not working that way. In terms of geopolitical interests, the EU doesn't align with the US well.

Because german carmakers that need somewhere to sell their old tech. In politics just like in crime, follow the money.

Would the US be doing what it's doing without Trump? During the 2016 election Trump's tough stance on China was widely seen as ignorant, unrealistic or a joke.

Sure, but then we would reasonably have to blacklist the US as well to be consistent (supporting the genocide in Yemen, putting kids in concentration camps, separating families from babies, rampant corruption, no rule of law, etc etc), and I don't think the EU would want to lose both those markets at once.

Because they want to reserve some ammo in case Trump puts a 25% tariff on all Mercedes and Audi's.

> why the European Union is watching and not doing the same as US?

LOL. US is arguably the bigger foul than China to EU now. Airbus/German car manufactures are on the Trump's target list.

On a related note, it was reported mere days ago that Trump personally promised Xi US government silence on Hong Kong during trade negotiations:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/politics/trump-xi-hong-kong-p...