US President Donald Trump has signed a law allowing sanctions against Chinese officials accused of suppressing the Uighur minority, coinciding with leaks of extracts from Bolton's book accusing Trump of begging China and turning a blind eye to the Uighur issue.
"This law holds perpetrators of human rights violations such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, hard labor, and surveillance (...) to eliminate ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uighurs and other minorities in China," the president said in a statement.
Congress referred Trump to the bill, which is called the "Uighur Human Rights Policy Act 2020" last May.
The law - which came into effect after its signature - calls on the president to provide Congress with a list of senior Chinese government officials involved or responsible for serious human rights violations against Uighur Turks and other Muslim minorities.
The US bill also calls on the State Department to prepare a report for Congress documenting human rights violations in the region, including against individuals held in forced labor camps.
A Chinese threat
For its part, China condemned the legislation signed by the US President, and threatened to respond to it.
The State Department said in a statement that Washington should not interfere in its internal affairs and bear all consequences of this decision.
Bolton leaks
The signing of the law by Trump came as extracts from a prospective book by former National Security Adviser John Bolton published by local media revealed that the president asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to win a second presidential term in the 2020 election.
Ironically, some of the book's leaks are in complete contradiction to the new law, as excerpts of it indicate that Trump endorsed the mass detention China is doing to Uighur Muslims.
Some saw Trump's rush to sign the law as an attempt to cover up his stances, which were revealed by Bolton in his book, while the Justice Department is seeking an emergency court ruling barring the issuance of the book of the former National Security Adviser, according to The Washington Post.
One of Trump's steps after publishing excerpts of the book was to send his Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo to meet Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat in Hawaii.
Only a brief statement came out of the meeting, indicating the need for full transparency and exchange of information between the two countries, in the framework of efforts to address the Corona pandemic and friendly dealings in the commercial, security and diplomatic fields.