“A major problem, for now, is that Trump is a woeful standard-bearer of human rights and liberal values on the world stage, and his heavy-handed approach to Europe has impaired more substantive cooperation regarding China, said Julie Smith of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
“The Trump administration has ‘spent far less time engaging European friends and partners on human rights issues, talking about things like Hong Kong, Taiwan and the situation of the Uighurs,’ she said. A Democratic presidential victory in November, Smith added, may lead to ‘a more constructive dialogue with Europe on these types of issues…'”