Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act


The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 is a United States federal law that requires various United States government bodies to report on human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, including internment in the Xinjiang re-education camps.
On September 11, 2019, a version of the bill was passed in the United States Senate by unanimous consent. On December 3, 2019, a stronger version of the bill was passed by the United States House of Representatives by a vote of 407–1. The revised bill was introduced and approved by the Senate on May 14, 2020. On May 27, 2020, the House passed the amended bill by a vote of 413–1, sending it to President Donald Trump for approval. The bill was signed by Trump into law on June 17, 2020.

Legislative history

On September 11, 2019, a version of the bill—S. 178, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019—passed in the United States Senate by unanimous consent.
On December 3, 2019, a stronger, amended version of the bill—the Uighur Intervention and Global Humanitarian Unified Response Act —was passed by the United States House of Representatives by a vote of 407 to 1. The sole "no" vote was cast by Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.
On the afternoon of May 14, 2020, a new version of the bill—S. 3744, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 passed in the United States Senate by unanimous consent. The House of Representatives approved the bill by a vote of 413–1 on May 27, 2020. President Trump signed the bill into law on June 17, 2020.

Legislation content

The bill directs the Director of National Intelligence to report to Congress on security issues caused by the Chinese government's reported crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report on efforts to protect Uyghurs and Chinese nationals in the United States, the U.S. Agency for Global Media to report on Chinese media related issues in Xinjiang, and for the United States Department of State to report on the scope of the reported Chinese government crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
U.S. President Donald Trump has to submit within 180 days a report to Congress. The report shall designate Chinese officials and any other individuals who are responsible for carrying out torture; prolonged detention without charges and a trial; abduction; cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of Muslim minority groups; and other flagrant denials of the "right to life, liberty, or the security" of people in Xinjiang. Persons identified in the report would then be subject to sanctions which include asset blocking, visa revocation, and ineligibility for entry into the United States. Imposing sanctions against the officials can be declined by the President if he determines and certifies to Congress that holding back on sanctions is in the national interest of the United States. The bill would also call on United States President Donald Trump to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act on Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, which would be the first time such sanctions would be imposed on a member of China's politburo.

Reactions

Domestic

Editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post supported the passage of the Act. Opinion pieces written in various publications also supported the passage of the Act.
On the same day President Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act into law, former National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed Trump had on two occasions told Chinese leader Xi Jinping to go forward with plans related to Uyghur internment.
Nury Turkel, commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and Uyghur American activist, thanked President Trump for signing the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and further wrote that, "It's a great day for America and the Uighur people".
On July 9, 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions and visa restrictions against senior Chinese officials, including Chen Quanguo, Zhu Hailun, Wang Mingshan and Huo Liujun. With sanctions, they and their immediate relatives are barred from entering the US and will have US-based assets frozen.

International

Uyghur community

A World Uyghur Congress spokesman said on December 3, 2019 that the House bill is important in opposing "China's continued push of extreme persecution" and that the organization looks forward to President Trump signing the bill. Uyghur activists, think tank analysts and political representatives called on various governments to sanction Mainland Chinese officials for their perceived involvement in the Xinjiang conflict.
In June 2020, co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and former President of the Uyghur American Association Nury Turkel, said that the U.S. government must use the new bill to impose sanctions on Chinese officials for religious persecution. He also urged Congress to pass a second bill, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would direct the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to presume that any goods produced in the Uyghur region are the product of forced labor.
On June 17, President Donald Trump signed a legislation the “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020” to punish China over their oppression of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minority groups. Under this law, the Trump administration has 180 days to identify Chinese officials responsible for carrying out human rights abuses, and level sanctions on those alleged to have roles in mass surveillance and detention.
Memetrusul Hesen, an Uyghur and former resident of Kargilik County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang who is now a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, left China with his aged mother in 2016. After a brief period of contact via phone in 2016, he had no longer been able to speak with his family or any of the members of his extended family up to mid-2020, despite having filed numerous requests for information at the Chinese embassy. Hesen said his mother, Halimihan Ahun, 92, sits and cries everyday. In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Hesen expressed thanks to the United States for thinking about Uyghur suffering, and expressed hope the bill's passage could be a driving force for change.

Chinese government and its allies

The Chinese government have called the bill a malicious attack on China and demanded that the United States prevent it from becoming law, warning that it would act to defend its interests as necessary. On December 4, 2019, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the bill "wantonly smeared China's counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts". On December 8, 2019, Minfeng/Niya County County Communist Party Committee Vice Secretary and County Magistrate Aizezi Aili and Kashgar Prefecture Communist Party Committee Vice Secretary and Commissioner Pa'erhati Rouzi penned criticisms of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act. The claim of deradicalization drew criticism in an article by the Deccan Chronicle while an article written by Srikanth Kondapalli made criticisms of the PRC's grand strategy for Xinjiang.
Analysts cited in an article by Reuters said that Mainland China's response to passage of the Uyghur bill could be stronger than its reaction to the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, while the BBC's China correspondent said that if the bill became law, then it would mark the most significant international attempt to pressure mainland China over its mass detention of the Uyghurs.
In December 2019, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates defended China's actions in Xinjiang and condemned the U.S. Uyghur human rights bill as a "blatant interference by the US in the internal affairs of the People’s Republic of China."