Speaking in a recent TV interview about the anticipated trial of the alleged killer of commentator Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump criticized the United States’ court system, saying: “We have to have quick trials. I call it quick trials. [Be]cause in China, they do have quick trials, you know?” Co-host Brian Kilmeade interjected, “Yeah, you start off guilty, and you end up guilty in China,” to which Trump agreed.
Trump’s suggestion that U.S. courts should behave like Chinese courts is a dangerous threat to human rights that lawmakers must take seriously. Courts in China are rife with unfair practices that violate human rights, and Trump’s latest statement cannot be dismissed as an off-the-cuff remark. This is not the first time that Trump has praised the Chinese government’s authoritarian practices. Worse, Trump’s open admiration of China’s system comes alongside his administration’s attacks on rule of law in the United States.
Many U.S. lawmakers continue to advocate for human rights in China. But unless they simultaneously firmly oppose the undermining of rule of law in the United States, efforts to push for reform in China will fail.
Injustice in China’s Justice System
China’s court system has been weaponized against human rights defenders and dissidents. New Amnesty International research released on October 1 illustrated how Chinese courts systematically prosecute and convict individuals for their peaceful speech, association, or even foreign connections and international engagement.
The report, titled “How could this verdict be ‘legal’? The Role of China’s Courts in targeting Human Rights Defenders,” described how China’s authorities treat lawyers, journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens as “enemies of the state” for simply submitting complaints to authorities, representing clients in politically sensitive cases, making blog posts and social media comments, writing in foreign publications, giving foreign media interviews, or attending NGO trainings. Such acts of peaceful speech and association are criminalized as “subversion of state power,” “inciting subversion,” “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” and “collusion with foreign forces.” These blatant examples of judicial abuses should have no place in any justice system worth its name, whether in China or the United States.
Meanwhile, the “quick trials” that Trump admires are, in reality, far from quick. Amnesty International found that authorities often violate the right to a prompt trial for human rights defenders, with the accused often waiting more than two years in detention before hearing a verdict. In some cases, authorities hold defendants incommunicado at high risk of torture or other ill treatment without access to legal counsel. The result is punishment before a verdict is even delivered, as the accused sits in pre-trial detention or under residential surveillance at a designated location for unnecessarily lengthy amounts of time.
When defendants finally go to trial, hearings are frequently closed to media, civil society, diplomats, and sometimes even family – unless, that is, the individual is one of the handful of cases in which the defendant’s coerced confession is run on major state television channels, presumably as an object lesson.
It’s not hard to imagine why Trump sees appeal in such a system for dealing with government critics.
Undermining the Rule of Law and Targeting Speech at Home
In fact, since his first term, Trump has frequently praised Chinese President Xi Jinping and his authoritarian practices. Trump has applauded Xi’s decision to end presidential term limits and become “president for life” – with the U.S. president suggesting “we’ll have to give that a shot someday” – and expressed admiration for Xi’s ruling “with an iron fist,” calling his leadership brilliant.
But actions speak louder than words. During Trump’s second term, Amnesty International has documented the administration’s aggressive undermining of the rule of law – eroding judicial independence, attacking judges, law firms and lawyers, and disregarding court decisions it doesn’t like.
The administration has also increasingly targeted freedom of expression and individuals that are critical of the administration its policies. Tactics have included banning journalists’ access and threatening to revoke TV station licenses, using federal agencies to target and punish individuals for “hate speech,” and designating anti-fascist movements as “domestic terrorist organizations.”
Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. emulate a court system that is weaponized by the country’s president to quash critical speech is not just a frivolous comment, but a dangerous attempt to institutionalize what Trump admires so much about Xi – the absolute rule by law.
Losing Credibility on Human Rights in China
If lawmakers don’t push back on Trump’s attacks on rule of law and free speech, they will lose credibility when criticizing and demanding accountability from China’s government for its violations.
Historically, the United States has been a critical voice in applying pressure on the Chinese government to respect human rights. Congress in particular has a longstanding bipartisan record of documenting the Chinese government’s political use of the court system to target and repress human rights defenders in annual reports and demanding accountability for these actions in analysis, statements, hearings, and legislation. Lawmakers should continue these efforts to pressure China’s government into revising and repealing this repressive system.
But now, Trump’s administration is sabotaging this record and making it more challenging than ever to achieve. The administration is eliminating longstanding accountability and reporting mechanisms meant to shame and deter repressive governments like China’s from committing human rights violations, while also dragging the U.S. into its own “era of rampant authoritarian practices.”
Republican lawmakers have historically made it their platform to push back on the Chinese government’s human rights violations. However, their failure to oppose Trump’s actions have already caused some interlocutors, including congressional staffers, to question their credibility on China.
Worse, some Republicans have done a full reversal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who as a senator championed human rights in China, has disappointingly failed to prevent further violations since joining the administration and now forcefully represses those same rights domestically.
If lawmakers seeking accountability for the Chinese government’s human rights violations want to be taken seriously, they need to not only speak out against these violations directly but also resolutely oppose Trump’s own authoritarian practices. Lawmakers have a duty to act as a check on the president’s attacks on rule of law and should take up calls from U.N. experts that urge the U.S. to recommit to human rights at home and abroad.