Urge their Senators to finalize the adoption of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 (S.178) and for the White House to immediately enact the bill once it arrives on the president’s desk.
Previously adopted in the Senate, it is being reported that the bill will not go to conference to consider the House’s amendments but will instead go to the floor for a final vote.
Urge Final Adoption and Enactment of Uyghur Right’s Act
The bill was introduced earlier this year in response to reports of gross human rights violations by Chinese officials against the country’s Uyghur population, including the mass internment of more than one million persons, pervasive high-tech surveillance across the Xinjiang province, and the systemic denial of the freedoms of expression, religion, and movement.
The bill would:
- Call for the imposition of sanctions on China under the International Religious Freedom Act
- Urge the application of sanctions against specific Chinese government officials under the Global Magnitsky Act
- Ask the Secretary of Commerce to consider prohibiting the sale of U.S.-made goods to Chinese state agents in the Xinjiang province
- Call on U.S. companies operating in Xinjiang to publicly assert that their commercial activities are not contributing to human rights violations
- Call on the Secretary of State to consider creating a special position, the Special Coordinator for Xinjiang, to coordinate the U.S. response to these human rights violations
- Call on the Secretary of State to submit a report detailing the number of persons detained in re-education camps, the conditions in those camps, and the surveillance methods used by authorities in the region