This week the U.S. Senate took aim at China’s human rights record, passing a bill that could lead to sanctions for Chinese officials involved in the massive network of prisons and forced labor camps targeting ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang.
The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 recommends the U.S. take a harder approach to punishing China for human rights abuses. If passed by the House and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the White House would draw up a list of Chinese officials involved in abuses for possible sanctions.
The bill, introduced by Senators Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and James Risch, R-Idaho, passed with unanimous support from lawmakers, reflecting support across parties for taking a harder line on Chinese human rights issues.
Rubio, who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said in a joint statement, “The Chinese government and Communist Party’s systematic, ongoing efforts to wipe out the ethnic and cultural identities of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang is horrific and will be a stain on humanity should we refuse to act.”
Risch, chairman of the committee, said in the joint statement, “Today’s Senate passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act is an important step in holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its severe human rights abuses in Xinjiang.”
He continued, “China’s illegal detainment of at least a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in prison camps is reprehensible and inexcusable.”
Menendez, the committee's ranking member, said in the joint statement, “Enactment of this legislation to provide justice for the Uyghur people and others subject to China’s gross violations of human rights and possible crimes against humanity is long overdue.”
The senators urged the House to quickly take up the legislation.
The Senate passed the original version of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act in September. In December, the House passed its version, which included increased restrictions on exporting devices that the Chinese government could use to monitor or restrict movement of Uighurs and other Chinese citizens. This version was sent back to the Senate for consideration.
The Senate, in the bill it passed Thursday, accepted most of the House version but removed the restrictions on exports. As a result, the House will need to approve the bill again before it can be sent to the president for his signature.
Last week in his remarks on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expected that the passage of the Uighur rights bill “will bring more attention to the plight of this mistreated minority.”
The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act urges the United States to hold Chinese Communist Party officials accountable and impose sanctions and revoke visas under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., many members of the House are not working in their Washington offices. It's not known when the Uighur legislation will come up for a vote.
The bill's unanimous passage in the Senate is expected to spark another round of protests from Beijing. When the House passed its version of the bill late last year, Chinese officials called it a grave violation of international law and interference in China's internal affairs.
