Sec. 3. FINDINGS
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## SEC. 3 FINDINGS Congress makes the following findings: ####
(1)The Government of the People’s Republic of China has a long history of repressing Turkic Muslims and other Muslim minority groups, particularly Uyghurs, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In recent decades, central and regional Chinese government policies have systematically discriminated against these minority groups by denying them a range of civil and political rights, including the freedom of expression, religion, and movement, and the right to a fair trial. ####
(2)In May 2014, the Government of the People’s Republic of China launched its latest “Strike Hard Against Violent Extremism” campaign, using wide-scale, internationally-linked threats of terrorism as a pretext to justify pervasive restrictions on and serious human rights violations of members of ethnic minority communities in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The August 2016 appointment of former Tibet Autonomous Region Party Secretary Chen Quanguo to be Party Secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region accelerated the crackdown across the region. Scholars, human rights organizations, journalists, and think tanks have provided ample evidence substantiating the establishment by the Government of the People’s Republic of China of internment camps. Since 2014, the Government of the People’s Republic of China has detained more than 1,000,000 Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups in these camps. The total ethnic minority population of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was approximately 13,000,000 at the time of the last census conducted by the People’s Republic of China in 2010. ####
(3)The Government of the People’s Republic of China’s actions against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region violate international human rights laws and norms, including— #####
(A)the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which the People’s Republic of China has acceded; #####
(B)the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the People’s Republic of China has signed and ratified; #####
(C)the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the People’s Republic of China has signed; and #####
(D)the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ####
(4)Senior Chinese Communist Party officials, including current Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who executes Chinese government policy in the region, and former Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Deputy Party Secretary Zhu Hailun, who crafted many of the policies implemented in the region, bear direct responsibility for gross human rights violations committed against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups. These abuses include the arbitrary detention of more than 1,000,000 Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups, separation of working age adults from children and the elderly, and the integration of forced labor into supply chains. ####
(5)Those detained in internment camps in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have described forced political indoctrination, torture, beatings, food deprivation, and denial of religious, cultural, and linguistic freedoms. These victims have confirmed that they were told by guards that the only way to secure their release was to demonstrate sufficient political loyalty. Poor conditions and lack of medical treatment at such facilities appear to have contributed to the deaths of some detainees, including the elderly and infirm. ####
(6)Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs who have obtained permanent residence or citizenship in other countries report being subjected to threats and harassment from Chinese officials. At least 5 journalists for Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur service have publicly detailed abuses their family members in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have endured in response to their work exposing the Government of the People’s Republic of China’s abusive policies. ####
(7)In September 2018, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet noted in her first speech as High Commissioner the “deeply disturbing allegations of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uighurs and other Muslim communities, in so-called reeducation camps across Xinjiang”. ####
(8)In 2019, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China concluded that, based on available evidence, the establishment and actions committed in the internment camps in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region may constitute “crimes against humanity”. ####
(9)On December 31, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-409), which— #####
(A)condemns the People’s Republic of China’s “forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, invasive and omnipresent surveillance, and lack of due process in judicial proceedings”; #####
(B)authorizes funding to promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in the People’s Republic of China; and #####
(C)supports sanctions designations against any entity or individual that— ######
(i)violates human rights or religious freedoms; or ######
(ii)engages in censorship activities.
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Sec. 3
FINDINGS
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