‘Xi Jinping gave his henchmen the order to show no mercy,’ Rep. Chris Smith said.
Two House lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at giving the U.S. government additional means of combating the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing crimes against Uyghurs in northwest China’s Xinjiang region.
Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), co-chairs of the Congressional Uyghur Caucus, introduced the Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act (
H.R.8124) on April 23. The State Department in 2021
determined that China’s communist regime is committing “genocide” and “crimes against humanity” against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
“This critical legislation will help address the horrific abuses we have seen directed at Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Central Asian people by Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]—from forced labor to the forced harvesting of Uyghur organs,” Mr. Smith
said in an April 24 statement.
“Xi Jinping gave his henchmen the order to ’show no mercy.' From the highest level to the lowest concentration camp guard, we will hold the perpetrators of these horrific abuses accountable.”
According to the statement, the new bill “strengthens provisions” in
the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, which became law in June 2020 and allows U.S. sanctions to be imposed on foreign individuals and entities involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Aside from increasing sanctions against CCP officials involved in abuses, the legislation would also require the U.S. secretary of state to submit to Congress “a strategy to deter and disrupt forced organ harvesting” in China,
according to the language of the bill.
If the bill is enacted, U.S. government agencies would be prohibited from contracting businesses implicit in forced labor in Xinjiang. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development would be tasked to assist victims of genocide and counter the CCP’s propaganda regarding its acts of genocide.
The legislation would also fund organizations to document atrocities in Xinjiang.
“The Chinese Communist Party has committed horrific abuses against the Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic and religious minorities in China,” Mr. Suozzi said in the statement.
“This legislation would expand our sanctions effort against Chinese officials perpetrating these crimes and provide technical assistance for documenting human rights abuses.”
Legislation
The companion
legislation was
introduced in the Senate last year by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
The CCP has used “combating extremism” as a pretext to lock up more than 1 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, where detainees are subjected to forced labor,
torture, political indoctrination, forced abortion, and other inhuman treatments in internment camps.
A day after the Senate bill was introduced, the Washington-based advocacy group Campaign for Uyghurs
issued a statement thanking the senators for their effort.
“The introduction of the Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act is yet another significant milestone in our ongoing fight for justice,” Rushan Abbas, the group’s executive director, said.
“It symbolizes the very essence of our undying commitment to safeguard the rights, dignity, and indomitable spirit of the Uyghur people who have endured unimaginable suffering.
“This act is a cry for justice, piercing the darkness with the light of hope, as we fight tooth and nail to restore the shattered lives and stolen dreams of the Uyghur people. We will not rest until justice is served and the regime is held accountable.”
In recent years, the U.S. government has sanctioned numerous CCP officials in connection with human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
In July 2020, Chen Quanguo, then-party secretary in Xinjiang, was among those
sanctioned under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
In December 2023, two mid-level CCP officials were hit with
sanctions from the State and Treasury departments under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020. One of the officials was Gao Qi, a former regional security bureau chief in Xinjiang.
To address the Chinese regime’s state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting, Mr. Smith took the
lead in sponsoring the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023 (H.R. 1154). The legislation was
passed following a House vote of 413–2 in March 2023.
Following the House vote, Ms. Abbas issued a
statement calling for the Senate to “pass this bill without delay.”
“The passage of the ‘Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023’ is a significant step towards holding accountable those responsible for the heinous crime of forced organ harvesting,” Ms. Abbas said.
The
Senate version of the
legislation has not advanced out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since it was introduced in 2023.
