Sec. 2. Findings

583 words·~3 min read·/bill/119/hr/2635/ih/section-2

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Congress finds the following: The People’s Republic of China

(PRC)continues to repress the distinct Islamic, Turkic identity of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

(XUAR)in northwestern China and other areas of their habitual residence. Uyghurs, and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities historically making up the majority of the XUAR population, have maintained throughout their history a distinct religious and cultural identity. Human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, and respect for the Uyghurs’ unique Muslim identity are legitimate interests of the international community. The PRC has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and is thereby bound by its provisions. The PRC has also signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. An official campaign to encourage Han Chinese migration into the XUAR has placed immense pressure on those who seek to preserve the ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic traditions of the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups. PRC authorities have supported an influx of Han Chinese economic immigrants into the XUAR, implemented discrimination against Uyghurs and other minorities in hiring practices, and provided unequal access to healthcare services. PRC authorities have manipulated the strategic objectives of the international war on terror to mask their increasing cultural and religious oppression of the Muslim population residing in the XUAR. Following unrest in the region, in 2014, Chinese authorities launched their Strike Hard against Violent Extremism campaign, in which dubious allegations of widespread extremist activity were used as justification for gross human rights violations committed against Uyghurs and members of other minority communities in the XUAR. PRC authorities have made use of the legal system as a tool of repression, including for the imposition of arbitrary detentions and for torture against members of the Uyghur community and other minority populations. Uyghurs and Kazakhs who have secured citizenship or permanent residency outside of the PRC have attested to repeated threats, harassment, and surveillance by PRC officials. Reporting from international news organizations has found that over the past decade, family members of Uyghurs and other minority groups living outside of the PRC have gone missing or been detained to force Uyghur expatriates to return to the PRC or silence their dissent. In 2017, Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service was the first media organization to report on the PRC’s vast, mass arbitrary-detention program in the XUAR in 2017. Credible evidence from human rights organizations, think tanks, and journalists confirms that more than 1,000,000 Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups have been imprisoned in extrajudicial political reeducation centers. Independent accounts from former detainees of political reeducation centers describe inhumane conditions and treatment including forced political indoctrination, torture, beatings, rape, forced sterilization, and food deprivation. Former detainees also confirmed that they were told by guards that the only way to secure release was to demonstrate sufficient political loyalty to the PRC Government. Popular discourse surrounding the ongoing atrocities in the XUAR and advocacy efforts to assist Uyghurs remains muted in most Muslim majority nations around the world. Former Secretary of States Antony Blinken and Michael Pompeo and Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the PRC Government has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the XUAR. Government bodies of multiple nations have also declared that PRC Government’s atrocities against such populations in the XUAR constitute genocide, including the parliaments of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Czechia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Canada.