Sec. 2. Findings

625 words·~3 min read·/bill/119/s/1542/is/section-2

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Congress finds the following: The People’s Republic of China (referred to in this Act as the 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 (referred to in this Act as the XUAR ) in northwestern China and other areas in which they have habitually residided. Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities historically making up the majority of the XUAR population have maintained a distinct religious and cultural identity throughout their history.

Human rights, including the 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, done at New York December 16, 1966, and is thereby bound by its provisions; and has also signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, done at New York December 19, 1966. An official campaign to encourage Han Chinese migration into the XUAR has placed immense pressure on Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups who seek to preserve their unique ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic traditions.

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. In 2014, following unrest in the XUAR, Chinese authorities launched the 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 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 during 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. 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 Government of the PRC. 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 Secretaries of State Antony Blinken and Michael Pompeo and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have all confirmed that the Government of the PRC has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the XUAR.

Government bodies of multiple countries have also declared that atrocities by the Government of the PRC against such populations in the XUAR constitute genocide, including the Parliament of the United Kingdom, of Belgium, of Czechia, of Lithuania, of the Netherlands, and of Canada.