# Professor Michael Posner comments on the US State Department's sanctions targeting Chinese officials over their involvement in human rights abuses in the Chinese region of Xinjiang

1 Faculty News October 17, 2019 ![Yahoo logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/yahoo.jpg?itok=UzShvj6e)>

Excerpt from [Yahoo News](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/china-subsidising-xinjiang-companies-forced-230845106.html) -- “'The commander-in-chief is the primary spokesperson for the United States,' said [Posner](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/michael-posner). 'And if he’s not echoing or even leading in the same direction as Secretary \[of State Mike\] Pompeo … it allows somebody like Xi Jinping to say ‘I’ll listen to the guy I’m talking to – the president – and I can ignore the rest’.'”

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