[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 791 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 791
Condemning the People's Republic of China's Ethnic Unity and Progress
Law, concerned with its implications on the rights and freedoms, as
well as survival of the identity, of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and
other affected communities, and calling on the Government of the
People's Republic of China to end its abuses and campaigns of
transnational repression that undermine United States sovereignty and
threaten the safety and freedoms of people in the United States.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 24, 2026
Ms. Rosen (for herself, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Banks)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the People's Republic of China's Ethnic Unity and Progress
Law, concerned with its implications on the rights and freedoms, as
well as survival of the identity, of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and
other affected communities, and calling on the Government of the
People's Republic of China to end its abuses and campaigns of
transnational repression that undermine United States sovereignty and
threaten the safety and freedoms of people in the United States.
Whereas the Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees specified
rights, including freedom of religious belief and the right of people
regarded as minorities to use their own spoken and written languages and
preserve their cultural traditions;
Whereas the People's Republic of China is a State Party to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and is a signatory to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
Whereas Chinese authorities have systematically imposed policies that displace
ethnic and religious minority communities, separate Tibetan and Uyghur
children from their families through state-run boarding schools, limit
the use of minority languages, curtail religious practice through
intrusive state controls, and compel conformity with ideology mandated
by the Chinese Communist Party;
Whereas the policies of the People's Republic of China have threatened the
rights and freedoms of a broad range of communities, including Tibetans,
Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other ethnic and religious groups
across China, as well as the people of Hong Kong whose civil liberties
and autonomy have been systematically eroded in recent years;
Whereas, on January 19, 2021, the United States Department of State determined
that the Government of the People's Republic of China is committing
genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other
predominantly Muslim Turkic peoples in Xinjiang, where the Chinese
Communist Party is engaging in forced sterilization, forced labor,
arbitrary detention, and restriction of religious practice;
Whereas Chinese Communist Party member Chen Quanguo first experimented with
systematic surveillance, intimidation, detention, and draconian controls
on expressions of religious and cultural identity in Tibet before
expanding and accelerating those repressive techniques in Xinjiang;
Whereas the July 1, 2026, entry into force of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law
of the People's Republic of China institutionalizes and expands coercive
assimilation and cultural erasure policies directed toward Tibetans,
Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other groups;
Whereas the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law codifies the Chinese Communist Party's
campaign of ``Sinicization,'' requiring schools, religious institutions,
families, media, and cultural organizations to align their activities
with Party-mandated ideology;
Whereas the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law criminalizes expression deemed to
``undermine ethnic unity'' or ``create ethnic division'';
Whereas the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law contains extraterritorial provisions
authorizing Chinese authorities to pursue ``legal responsibility'' for
individuals and organizations outside China, which includes United
States citizens who ``undermine ethnic unity'' or challenge the Chinese
Communist Party's official historical narratives;
Whereas officials in Taiwan have warned the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law could
be used by the Government of the People's Republic of China to assert
extraterritorial jurisdiction over Taiwanese individuals by
characterizing expressions of Taiwanese identity, history, or self-
governance as violations of the law;
Whereas the United States has charged multiple individuals acting on behalf of
the People's Republic of China with operating illegal overseas police
stations, conducting transnational repression, harassing dissidents, and
attempting to limit freedom of expression and other human rights of
individuals outside of China;
Whereas, on March 16, 2026, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Volker Turk warned the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law risks entrenching
assimilationist policies, restricting education in languages other than
Mandarin, and limiting the free practice of religion and culture;
Whereas, on April 30, 2026, the European Parliament adopted a resolution
condemning China's new ``ethnic unity and progress'' law and warning
that it poses grave risks to the rights and cultural preservation of
Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and others;
Whereas the United States has long affirmed its commitment to defending
religious freedom and the rights of ethnic minorities through bipartisan
measures such as the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22
U.S.C. 6401 et seq.), the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020
(subtitle E of title III of division FF of Public Law 116-260), and the
Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-145);
Whereas the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law expands state authority over religious
institutions in ways that threaten the ability of Tibetan Buddhist
leaders to determine matters of religious tradition, including the
succession of the Dalai Lama; and
Whereas the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law represents a grave escalation in the
campaign of the People's Republic of China to suppress ethnic,
religious, cultural, and linguistic diversity and, when combined with
the Chinese Government's expanding campaigns of transnational
repression, illegal overseas police operations, and extraterritorial
claims of authority, poses a growing threat to the United States and its
allies: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) condemns the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law for
institutionalizing coercive assimilation, cultural erasure, and
ideological control over ethnic and religious minorities in the
People's Republic of China;
(2) reaffirms support for the fundamental rights and
freedoms of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Hui Muslims,
Christians, and other ethnic and religious communities in the
People's Republic of China;
(3) reaffirms the 2021 determination of the United States
Department of State that the Government of the People's
Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against
humanity against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Turkic
peoples;
(4) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to repeal the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law;
(5) urges the United States Department of State to work
with allies and partners, including the European Union, Canada,
Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom, to monitor and report
on the impacts of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and ongoing
transnational repression carried out by the People's Republic
of China;
(6) calls on the President to evaluate and consider
targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) against
individuals and entities responsible for, complicit in, or
directly benefiting from gross human rights violations that
result from implementing the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and
related laws and policies;
(7) recognizes the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan
Administration for their longstanding commitment to nonviolence
and dialogue and reaffirms that, in light of the Ethnic Unity
and Progress Law's expansion of state authority over religious
institutions, decisions regarding the reincarnation or
succession of the Dalai Lama are solely the prerogative of
Tibetan Buddhist leaders and the Tibetan people, free from
interference by the Government of the People's Republic of
China, as outlined in the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of
2020; and
(8) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his
representatives in order to hold substantive discussions aimed
at resolution of the Sino-Tibetan disputes at an early date,
without preconditions.
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