[Senate Hearing 117-100]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       S. Hrg. 117-100

                        ATROCITIES IN XINJIANG: 
                       WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                  SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE,
                TRANSNATIONAL CRIME, CIVILIAN SECURITY,
                  DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND GLOBAL
                            WOMEN'S ISSUES;
                                  and
               SUBCOMMITTEE ON EAST ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND
                   INTERNATIONAL CYBERSECURITY POLICY


                                 OF THE

                     COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS


                             FIRST SESSION
                               __________

                             JUNE 10, 2021

                               __________


       Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations
       
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]       


                  Available via http://www.govinfo.gov
                              __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
46-165 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2021                     
          
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS        

             ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey, Chairman        
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire        MARCO RUBIO, Florida
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware       RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut      MITT ROMNEY, Utah
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts      RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 TODD YOUNG, Indiana
CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey           JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                 TED CRUZ, Texas
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland           MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
                                     BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
                 Jessica Lewis, Staff Director        
        Christopher M. Socha, Republican Staff Director        
                    John Dutton, Chief Clerk        



              SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE,        
       TRANSNATIONAL CRIME, CIVILIAN SECURITY, DEMOCRACY,        
            HUMAN RIGHTS, AND GLOBAL WOMEN'S ISSUES        

                 TIM KAINE, Virginia, Chairman        
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 MARCO RUBIO, Florida
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire        JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts      BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
                                     TED CRUZ, Texas



            SUBCOMMITTEE ON EAST ASIA, THE PACIFIC,        
             AND INTERNATIONAL CYBERSECURITY POLICY        

           EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts, Chairman        
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware       MITT ROMNEY, Utah
CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut      TED CRUZ, Texas
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                 RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
                                     BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee

                              (ii)        

  
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Kaine, Hon. Tim, U.S. Senator From Virginia......................     1

Rubio, Hon. Marco, U.S. Senator From Florida.....................     3

Markey, Hon. Edward J., U.S. Senator From Oregon.................     5

Romney, Hon. Mitt, U.S. Senator From Utah........................     6

Zenz, Dr. Adrian, Senior Fellow in China Studies Victims of 
  Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington, DC..................     8
    Prepared Statement...........................................     9

Abbas, Rushan, Executive Director, Campaign for Uyghurs, 
  Washington,
  DC.............................................................    17
    Prepared Statement...........................................    19

Richardson, Dr. Sophie, China Director, Human Rights Watch, 
  Washington, DC.................................................    24
    Prepared Statement...........................................    26

              Additional Material Submitted for the Record

Foreign Policy Article, ``Beijing Plans a Slow Genocide in 
  Xinjiang,'' by Adrian Zenz and Erin Rosenberg, June 8, 2021....    49

                                 (iii)

 
        ATROCITIES IN XINJIANG: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

                              ----------                              


         INSERT DATE HERE deg.THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021

                           U.S. Senate,    
        Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere,
            Transnational Crime, Civilian Security,
                       Democracy, Human Rights, and
                                     Global Women's Issues;
    Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific,
                International Cybersecurity Policy,
                            Committee on Foreign Relations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 11:00 a.m. in 
room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building and 
videoconference, Hon. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Western Hemisphere, presiding.
    Present: Senators Kaine [presiding], Cardin, Shaheen, 
Coons, Murphy, Markey, Merkley, Booker, Van Hollen, Rubio, 
Romney, Portman, Paul, Young, Barrasso, Cruz, Rounds, and 
Hagerty.

             OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TIM KAINE, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA

    Senator Kaine. I would like to call this Joint Subcommittee 
hearing to order.
    It is a very important hearing, ``Atrocities in Xinjiang: 
Where Do We Go From Here?'' It is two Senate Foreign Relations 
Subcommittees; the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere and 
Global Human Rights, and the East Asia Subcommittee.
    It is a very important event. We don't do joint 
subcommittee hearings often. It is the first one we have done 
in 7 years. It is the first meeting of the Western Hemisphere, 
and the Democracy, Human Rights Subcommittee in this session of 
Congress. We wanted to start off with a hearing on something 
that is deeply, deeply important. I thank my colleagues, the 
leadership of both subcommittees, and staff, for joining on 
this important matter today.
    This matter of the treatment of Uyghurs in China has to be 
highlighted and exclamation-pointed into the world. China's 
human rights abuses are well known and widespread, not just in 
Xinjiang with the Uyghurs, but in particular, across the 
country, China limits the political expression, religious 
freedom, reproductive choice, and citizen's ability to choose 
where they live and work.
    China has repressed Tibet for decades, and has launched a 
despicable and comprehensive crack down on political dissent in 
Hong Kong. All of these issues deserve our condemnation and 
urgent action by the United States and by the world. Nowhere is 
the assault on individual freedom and basic human rights more 
comprehensive and more atrocious than against the Uyghur 
Muslims in Xinjiang Province.
    As a paper released Tuesday by one of our witnesses, Dr. 
Adrian Zenz, demonstrated, the Chinese Government views high 
concentration of Uyghurs as a national security threat and has 
been implementing for years, a campaign to eliminate the Uyghur 
population. The tools, and the techniques, and the ideology 
behind this reminds me of the discredited Eugenics Movement in 
the United States in the nine teens and twenties, that was also 
responsible, in large measure, for the Holocaust in Europe, pre 
and during the Second World War.
    The methods employed by the Chinese Government are 
horrific. They include abduction from third countries, forced 
disappearances within China, mass detention, secret trials, 
forced labor, forced sterilization, separating families, 
banning the use of Uyghurs language in schools, and prohibiting 
a whole range of religious practices, the practices also 
include political indoctrination. What individuals around the 
world are finding, is that there is nowhere they can be in the 
world where they are not safe from persecution by China, if 
they advocate for Uyghur freedom.
    China has mastered in these horrific practices, the use of 
technology to enhance and accelerate political repression. The 
installation of surveillance cameras, and other devices that 
can recognize faces, voices, irises, and even the gate of an 
individual, to try to target them for persecution. At the same 
time China is sending Uyghurs out of Xinjiang Province to work 
elsewhere in the country, and engaged in the campaign to import 
Han Chinese into Xinjiang, including installing individuals 
from elsewhere in China to live with and report on Uyghur 
families.
    China has, in recent years, abandoned its well-known one-
child policy, and because of demographics is now encouraging 
Han families to have more children at the same time as they are 
trying to, through force sterilization and other methods, drive 
the birth of Uyghurs minority down to near zero.
    I am proud that senators of both parties have been working 
together in highlighting to denounce these practices, including 
by passing legislation, determining that these actions 
constitute genocide. I appreciate that both former Secretary 
Pompeo and current Secretary Blinken have described these 
actions as genocide, and that additional countries are now 
making similar determinations as well.
    At the same time, our actions have not stopped China's 
abuses. In fact recent research from the Australian Strategic 
Policy Institute shows that China has built or expanded 61 
detention sites just between July 2019 and July 2020. The 
atrocities that we will discuss today, and there is visual 
evidence of them that we will describe as we are into the 
hearing, should outrage all of us and motivate us to action.
    I have an additional layer of concern because the State of 
Virginia is home to one of the largest Diasporas of Uyghurs in 
the United States. These are citizens and residents who are our 
neighbors and friends in the Commonwealth. In many cases, 
Chinese Government actions target these families in Virginia. 
We will hear testimony of that today.
    We are here to shine a light on the latest information 
about these atrocities, looking at the issue at both at the 
macro level and highlighting the case, in my instance, of one 
individual, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a detained medical doctor, who 
was the sister and niece of one of my constituents.
    We are particularly interested in the suggestions from our 
witnesses about how we can pressure China to end these 
atrocities and bring them to the greater attention of the 
entire world. If there is things we can do to prevent U.S. 
companies from behaving either in direct or indirect ways to 
enhance the surveillance State atrocities against Uyghurs 
Muslims, we want to know that. I also hope that our witnesses 
will address any ideas for action that we can take together 
with our partners. Thank you.
    I want to now offer an opportunity for opening comments to 
the ranking member of the Western Hemisphere and Human Rights 
Subcommittee, Senator Rubio. Then we will follow with opening 
comments from the chair and ranking of the East Asia 
Subcommittee, Senators Markey and Romney.
    Senator Rubio.

                STATEMENT OF HON. MARCO RUBIO, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA

    Senator Rubio. Well, thank you. I want to thank you and all 
of the members here for convening this important hearing. I 
also want to thank our witnesses. I want you to know that your 
research and your advocacy have done much to shine a bright 
light on these atrocities that are being committed in Xinjiang 
by the Chinese Communist Party.
    Ms. Abbas, who I understand joins us virtually, was my 
guest at the State of the Union last February. Her sister is 
currently detained in a camp. She and Dr. Gulshan's daughter, 
Ziba, have been forced to live without their family for no 
other reason than the fact that they are Uyghurs.
    Dr. Richardson, you have testified in front of the CECC, 
which I had the honor to chair for a number of years, and you 
have done so in the past testified, and your work as well as 
that of Dr. Zenz has been instrumental, to me, to my team, to 
all of us in helping to craft policies. That includes the 
Uyghurs Human Rights Policy Act, which became law last year and 
the Uyghurs Forced Labor Prevention Act, which we are very 
hopeful will become law very soon. We are hopeful that the full 
committee will be able to hear it as soon as this month.
    In a few weeks, the Chinese Communist Party is going to 
mark its hundredth year since its founding. They are going to 
likely gather in Beijing in cities across China to celebrate 
the centennial. It should actually be a national day of 
mourning. That would be more appropriate, that the crimes 
committed by the Chinese Communist Party are too numerous to 
catalog here, but the one we are focused on today is an effort 
by the Chinese Communist Party to completely eliminate Turkic 
Muslims, especially Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in 
Xinjiang.
    Since all of this has come to light, we have learned the 
appalling extent of these violations. There are more than one 
million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims detained in camps and 
forced into labor. The network of detention facilities and 
factories has turned Xinjiang into a huge, massive labor camp.
    Guards at these camps force Uyghur men to renounce their 
faith, to shave their beards, and to violate Muslim dietary 
restrictions. Uyghur women have been raped, experience other 
forms of heinous sexual violence, and have undergone forced 
sterilization, and forced abortions.
    Families are ripped apart. Adults working in factories, and 
children sent to state-operated orphanages. At least that is 
what they call them. The goal is to brainwash them, to strip 
them of their language, their culture, their traditions, their 
identity, and isolate them from their families and communities. 
The Chinese Communist Party is also working to suppress birth 
rates among Uyghur populations, with official data now showing 
birth rates already declining between 48.7 percent between 2017 
and 2019.
    Earlier this year, former Secretary of State Pompeo 
determined that crimes against humanity and genocide are being 
committed by the Chinese Communist Party. It is a determination 
the Biden administration has rightfully upheld. It is important 
to call these crimes by their proper name. I give credit to 
both administrations for doing so, but we needed to do 
something about these crimes, even more than just call them for 
what they are.
    China's efforts to silence Uyghurs, and turn the world's 
attention away from the ongoing atrocities also include 
coercing and intimidating those Uyghurs who live abroad, that 
includes American citizens and American residents. American 
citizens speaking out are at great risk of having the Chinese 
Communist Party target themselves and their family members who 
remain in Xinjiang.
    Earlier this year CNN reported a Uyghur man being taken 
from his pregnant wife in Dubai and extradited to China. If we 
do not fight back against the extraterritorial reach of the CCP 
now, we will one day find that such practices will increase in 
frequency to the point that many places outside of China will 
be just as dangerous as the territories that are directly 
controlled by the CCP.
    I would note in closing, the one major difference between 
past and present crimes of the Communist Party of China is the 
motivation. It has evolved beyond simply power, to both power 
and profit. Many Uyghurs and other Muslims are forced to 
manufacture goods, such as textiles, and electronics, and food 
products. They are also transported to other provinces and they 
are forced to work there.
    The Chinese Government calls this ``poverty alleviation.'' 
That is the term they have come up for it; but everybody else 
knows what it is. It is slavery. While some companies are 
waking up to the reality that they are, unwittingly, profiting 
from these crimes, many still have not. For far too long, 
companies like Nike, and Apple, and Amazon, and Coca-Cola were 
using forced labor. They were benefiting from forced labor, or 
sourcing from suppliers that were suspected of using forced 
labor.
    These companies, sadly, were making all of us complicit in 
these crimes. That is why it is critical that the Senate 
quickly pass our Uyghurs Forced Labor Prevention Act to ensure 
the goods made by forced labor, by Uyghur forced labor, do not 
enter our markets and make all Americans unwitting accomplices.
    The crimes against humanity and genocide that are taking 
place at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party demand an 
urgent international response. I urge the Biden administration 
to use all of its tools at its disposal to end these atrocities 
and ensure that the CCP does not benefit from these crimes, but 
it is incumbent upon us, us here in Congress to act as well. I 
am hopeful that our legislation will be a major step in that 
direction. I thank you for holding this hearing.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Senator Rubio.
    Senator Markey.

              STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM OREGON

    Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
coordinating between our two subcommittees, the subcommittee 
which Senator Romney and I lead on China, and the subcommittee 
which you and Senator Rubio lead on human rights.
    These two issues have to be brought together and we have to 
focus upon it with this special attention, which we are giving 
to it today because we will be giving a voice to the victims of 
the horrific atrocities being carried out by the Chinese 
Government, and explore ways in which the United States can 
prevent this suffering and hold its perpetrators to account.
    The genocide in Xinjiang is a stain on the global 
conscience. It is hard to fathom how in the 21st century such 
unspeakable crimes can occur. The Chinese Government is engaged 
in a widespread, coordinated effort to eliminate Uyghur Muslims 
in Xinjiang and their way of life, by engaging in forced labor, 
arbitrary detention, torture, sexual abuse, sterilization, 
forced assimilation, and other atrocities, amounting to 
genocide.
    This alarming repression of China's most marginalized 
citizens reveals the fundamental rot and weakness of the 
Chinese system. America's strength is derived from the example 
it sets by championing human rights and representational 
government. We must lead the world in exposing and opposing the 
crimes of this brutal regime.
    We cannot decouple our bilateral relationship with China 
from the lives of persecuted Uyghurs, and other ethnic 
minorities and their families, many of whom live in the United 
States. The Chinese Government's harassment of Uyghurs extends 
beyond their own borders and Uyghur-Americans and their 
families have been targeted and intimidated here in the United 
States as well.
    I know we will be hearing from wonderful experts today, who 
will shine a light on the plight of Uyghurs and other 
minorities in Xinjiang. I hope that this hearing is going to be 
an opportunity for us to identify additional ways that we can 
meaningfully address this ongoing genocide.
    Preventing further atrocities and seeking justice and 
accountability must be a top foreign policy agenda for this 
Administration, but for us here in Congress as well. Thank you, 
Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Senator Markey.
    Senator Romney.

                STATEMENT OF HON. MITT ROMNEY, 
                     U.S. SENATOR FROM UTAH

    Senator Romney. Thank you, Senator Markey, for your 
comments and thank you to the witnesses for appearing today; 
thank you to Senator Rubio for his Uyghur Force Labor Bill, and 
I hope that receives the support from our colleagues that it 
desperately needs.
    This is obviously a topic of interest to the world at 
large, because it concerns some of the most heinous human 
rights abuses on the planet today. They are being carried out 
by a highly-developed nation that is also trying to promote 
itself as a model to nations around the world.
    Of course, many of the Chinese Communist Party's outrageous 
actions are well-known by others: its censorship, its 
incarceration of journalists, its repression of religion, its 
oppression of all minorities, its surveillance of its own 
citizens. When it comes to its genocide of the Uyghur people, 
China has largely been able to hide what it is perpetrating 
from the world at large, from the concentration camps and 
forced labor, to families being torn apart, to Uyghur women 
being sexually abused by Han Chinese. What the Communist 
Chinese Party is perpetrating on the Uyghur people is atrocity 
not seen or imagined coming from a nation in the modern era.
    Our hearing today is meant to inform us on the conditions 
and treatment of these people and to help us consider steps 
that can be taken to end this abuse.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Senator Romney.
    Let me now introduce the witnesses, and then we will hear 
their testimony in the order that I introduce them. We have a 
superb panel of three witnesses.
    First, appearing virtually, Dr. Adrian Zenz is an 
anthropologist whose ingenuity, persistence and thoroughness 
have helped to uncover important details about the scale and 
the ferocity of China's persecution of the Uyghurs as well as 
China's ethnic policy in general. Dr. Zenz was born in Germany. 
He obtained a Master's Degree in Development Studies from the 
University of Auckland, followed by a Ph.D. in Social 
Anthropology from Cambridge.
    He previously worked as a lecturer in Social Research 
Methodology and Doctoral Advisors at the European School of 
Culture and Theology. Currently serves as a senior fellow in 
China Studies at the Victims of Communism Foundation here in 
Washington, DC. He also serves as an advisor to the Inner 
Parliamentary Alliance in China.
    Dr. Zenz is the author of two books on Tibet. Just this 
week he presented new and very compelling, detailed research 
demonstrating that the Chinese Government sees the Uyghurs as a 
national security threat and is attempting to dilute the 
population in Xinjiang Province by forcibly reducing birth 
rates, and importing Han Chinese. Dr. Zenz joins us remotely 
from Minnesota.
    Our second witness who will follow Dr. Zenz, very 
important, is Rushan Abbas. She was born and raised in Xinjiang 
Province. She first became an activist as a student organizing 
and leading pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University 
in 1985, and then 1988. She came to the U.S. as a young adult 
to study English, and was horrified 3 weeks after her arrival 
in the U.S. witnessing China's crackdown on protesters, 
including some of her friends at Tiananmen Square.
    Ms. Abbas has worked as a journalist for Radio Free Asia, 
and the U.S. Government as a translator for Uyghur detainees at 
Guantanamo, and also has worked on resettlement efforts for 
those detainees. She spent the bulk of her career, more than 20 
years, working in international business development while also 
volunteering to advocate for Uyghur people.
    In September 2018, Ms. Abbas denounced China's use of 
detention camps in Xinjiang at a think tank event. Just 6 days 
later, her sister and her aunt who were living in different 
cities in Xinjiang Province were both secretly detained. For 
more than 2 years, the Chinese Government refused to answer any 
questions about the whereabouts of Ms. Abbas' sister, Dr. 
Gulshan Abbas, a medical doctor who spent her career caring for 
patients in Xinjiang.
    A year after her sister's disappearance, Ms. Abbas left a 
career in business development, and is now dedicated herself 
full-time to advocating for the Uyghur community. She is the 
founder and executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, and 
is an effective advocate.
    Today's hearing is particularly fitting for the Abbas 
family as Dr. Abbas' birthday is Saturday. Dr. Abbas' picture 
is right here behind Senator Markey. This will be her third 
birthday spent in detention. The family learned in December, 
just recently, that Ms. Abbas was secretly tried on false 
terrorism charges in 2019 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
    I want to welcome Dr. Ziba Murat, who is here. So glad that 
you are with us, who is here in-person. Ms. Abbas, Ms. Murat, 
and several other members of their family live in Virginia. I 
am proud to have them as my constituents. Ms. Abbas is joining 
us from London where she has just finished testifying at a 
series of hearings on Chinese atrocities toward the Uyghurs.
    Finally, our third witness is Dr. Sophie Richardson. She is 
the China Director at Human Rights Watch, a renowned expert on 
China's human rights abuses frequently here on The Hill to 
educate members of Congress. She is a graduate of Oberlin 
College and the Hopkins-Nanjing Program, completed her Ph.D. at 
the University of Virginia in Political Science and Government.
    She is the author of ``China, Cambodia, and the Five 
Principles of Peaceful Coexistence,'' as well as numerous 
articles on domestic Chinese political reform, democratization 
and human rights in China and across Asia. We are very glad 
that Dr. Richardson could be with us in person.
    So that will be our introductions. Again, we will first 
hear from Dr. Zenz, then Ms. Abbas, then Dr. Richardson; and 
then we will proceed to questions.
    Dr. Zenz, by the able assistance of the staff members of 
this committee, you will now magically appear on the screen 
before us, and we are anxious to hear what you have to say.

 STATEMENT OF DR. ADRIAN ZENZ, SENIOR FELLOW IN CHINA STUDIES 
    VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, DC

    Dr. Zenz. Well, thank you indeed very much, Mr. Chairman. I 
hope you can hear and see me.
    Senator Kaine. We are hearing you just fine. We are not yet 
seeing you, but we are hearing you fine. So keep talking and we 
hope we will see you--oh, here he is. Now we can see you. Thank 
you.
    Dr. Zenz. Good. Well, I thank you for inviting me to 
testify today. In retrospect, it is clear that Beijing has 
carefully prepared its campaign of subjugating the Uyghurs and 
other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang through an unprecedented 
buildup of police forces in 2016 and 2017 complemented by 
advanced surveillance technologies.
    Party Secretary Chen Quanguo used, strategically, the first 
9 months of his reign in Xinjiang, to prepare the ground then 
embarking on the internment campaign while simultaneously 
rolling out other aspects of the atrocity, including forced 
labor, sending children to boarding schools, and birth 
prevention.
    The CCP's long-term strategy in Xinjiang began first with 
what Chinese researchers themselves have called, ``drastic 
short-term measures that were absolutely necessary and 
effective.'' An internment and re-education campaign to break 
people's will and enable to assimilate an entire people. This 
``short-term measure'' is culminating in several long-term 
aspects that I will discuss.
    First, an imprisonment campaign which removes key 
influencers or the elite of Uyghur society by sentencing them 
to long prison terms, at the same time, night light analysis of 
satellite images, such as conducted by the RAND Corporation 
earlier this year, showed that by May 2020, only 13 percent of 
re-education camps, which are run in addition to prisons, 
showed a significant decline in night light emissions, 
potentially indicating closure. For 45 percent of camps the 
emissions increased. The office estimates that by mid-2020, 87 
percent of internment camps were still likely active.
    Second, parent-child separation: Children are reared by the 
state in highly-securitized boarding schools where they must 
speak Chinese and are raised as loyal followers of the Party. 
This is designed to win over the entire next generation.
    Third, coercive labor: by which men and women are made to 
work and full-time labor intensive factory work, separating 
families, maximizing state control over the young generation, 
breaking intergenerational chains of cultural transmission. 
Labor transfers also serve to reduce the population density in 
Uyghur heartlands, constituting one aspect of a population 
strategy.
    Fourth, a drastic reduction in birth rates: Significantly 
now lower numbers of children make it easier for the state to 
focus resources on indoctrinating the young, promoting social 
control, and assimilating them through greater mixing with the 
Han, reducing also the need for policing and security over a 
shrinking population.
    New evidence shows the Xinjiang's campaign to suppress 
birth rates is very likely part of a long-term strategy to 
``optimizing the ethnic population structure.'' Chinese 
academics and politicians argue that Xinjiang's ``terrorism 
problem'' can only be solved by ``optimizing'' its ethnic 
population structure. High ethnic minority population 
concentrations are considered a national security threat,
    Optimizing such concentrated Uyghur populations requires 
embedding substantial Han populations into them to dilute them. 
The Han ``positive culture'' is supposed to mitigate what some 
researchers have called the Uyghur ``human problem.'' Scenarios 
that bring in large numbers of Hans sufficient to dilute and 
embed the Uyghurs, but do not overburden the region's 
ecological carrying capacity, entail drastic reductions in 
ethnic minority natural population growth, which is also the 
key recommendation of related officials and researchers.
    Based on population projections that were published by 
Chinese academics, my research shows that this difference could 
range between 2.6 and 4.5 million lost lives through state-
mandated birth prevention by the year 2040, the most likely 
scenario being ^2.5 per-mille negative population growth.
    Beijing's strategy in Xinjiang is not one of population 
destruction, but of population control. It is a mass atrocity 
without mass slaughter, one with human rights violations of 
historic proportions, but leading to a loss of millions of 
lives, potentially. The most concerning aspect is that 
minorities are demonized and framed as a human problem, 
threatening an otherwise healthy society.
    Xinjiang no longer publishes reports of birth rates or 
population counts, breakdowns by regional ethnic group, leaving 
researchers in the dark and preparing the region to cover its 
tracks, as a slow genocide is unfolding. I urgently asked that 
the U.S. Senate passes the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act 
and at the U.S. Government enacts further economic and/or 
diplomatic sanctions on the Chinese Government in light of 
mounting evidence of an ongoing genocide, sanctions on 
technology that could be used in atrocities, punitive economic 
sanctions, strong measures against Uyghur forced labor, and 
especially a strong framework to cause American companies to 
comply with sanctions against forced labor, even if this 
results in retaliatory acts against them.
    Referring to Beijing's new strategy to make counter-
sanctions against U.S. entities or companies, this creates a 
new challenge that calls for strong, targeted measures that 
American companies will comply with U.S. law and sanctions.
    The United States should also seek to exert maximum 
pressure against Beijing at the United Nations over mounting 
evidence for genocide, using all disposable means to raise 
public attention, coerce relevant U.N. departments into action, 
or at least naming and shaming. The U.S. should also consider 
strong measures against the Beijing Olympics, publicly calling 
on U.S. companies to revoke their sponsorship and doing more to 
publicly expose the moral relativism of the IOC. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Zenz follows:]

                 Prepared Statement of Dr. Adrian Zenz

              a summary of beijing's policies in xinjiang
Background, Expertise and Methodology
    The author's relevant expertise and list of publications are shown 
on his institution's website at https://victimsofcommunism.org/leader/
adrian-zenz-phd/.
    The author's research methodology consists in the analysis of a 
wide range of documents. Most of these consist of publicly-accessible 
material obtained through government websites or the Chinese internet 
in general, such as: government reports, state media reports, 
government budgets, procurement and construction bids, recruitment 
notices, propaganda accounts that reflect the implementation and/or 
effect of relevant policies; as well as a cache of about 25,000 
internal (non-public) government documents obtained through local 
government social media networks (without hacking), that contain 
information such as spreadsheets of locals in ethnic minority regions 
by villages with their internment, education or labor status. On two 
occasions, the author was given internal leaked government documents 
from Xinjiang: the ``China Cables'' and the ``Karakax List.''
    The analysis of these sources proceeds from a basis of 
understanding key terms and their etymology (e.g. terms that identify 
different types of internment facilities), as well as the wider ethnic 
minority policy framework. Relevant sources are identified through 
extensive searches based on relevant terms (keywords) and whether they 
fit into the related policy framework. Sources are triangulated through 
comparison of different types of sources and comparisons with available 
relevant witness testimony. The analysis also includes state propaganda 
material, reading between the lines of propaganda statements to glean 
crucial additional evidence.
    Generally, the approach is to: a) identify and establish the 
general overarching or wider regional policy framework; b) identify 
specific evidence for the local adaptation and implementation of this 
policy, in individual counties, townships, villages or relevant 
entities (such as factories, family planning entities or schools); c) 
identify related examples where statements made by affected individuals 
are included or cited in propaganda reports.
Overview of Published Material
    Starting in late 2016, Xinjiang's new Party Secretary Chen Quanguo 
established one of the world's foremost police states in this restive 
region dominated by Turkic, predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities, 
notably the Uyghurs. The related security build-up is detailed in these 
pieces:

   https://jamestown.org/program/xinjiangs-rapidly-evolving-
        security-state/

   https://jamestown.org/program/chen-quanguo-the-strongman-
        behind-beijings-securitization-strategy-in-tibet-and-xinjiang/

   https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/
        article/abs/securitizing-xinjiang-police-recruitment-informal-
        policing-and-ethnic-minority-cooptation/
        FEEC613414AA33A0353949F9B791E733

    The context of how Chen was brought to Xinjiang, why he was chosen, 
and the likely premeditated nature of this leadership transition and 
the rapid unfolding of the internment campaign is discussed in https://
www.jpolrisk.com/karakax/ (section 3).
    In the spring of 2017, Chen Quanguo embarked on an unprecedented 
campaign of extrajudicial internment, documented as follows:

   Evidence of the origins and genesis of the campaign, its 
        roots in previous Chinese forms of extrajudicial internment, 
        and data from construction bids: https://osf.io/preprints/
        socarxiv/4j6rq/ (formally published here: https://
        www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02634937.2018.1507997 )

   Evidence on the build-up and expansion of the internment 
        campaign from Xinjiang's security budgets: https://
        jamestown.org/program/xinjiangs-re-education-and-
        securitization-campaign-evidence-from-domestic-security-
        budgets/

   Evidence from classified, leaked Chinese documents, as well 
        as internal local government spreadsheets listing thousands of 
        detainees, along with an analysis of new state terminology and 
        statements about the true nature of this campaign: https://
        www.jpolrisk.com/wash-brains-cleanse-hearts/

   Evidence of criteria for internment, for release, and new 
        evidence on the inception of this campaign and how it was 
        prepared by Chen Quanguo's predecessor Zhang Chunxian: https://
        www.jpolrisk.com/karakax/

    The campaign of extrajudicial internment has been complemented by 
three related campaigns:

    First, of parent-child separation and the weaponization of the 
education system for cultural assimilation. Publications:

   Main research publication on the topic: https://
        www.jpolrisk.com/break-their-roots-evidence-for-chinas-parent-
        child-separation-campaign-in-xinjiang/

   Overview of internal data from Xinjiang that lists the 
        internment status of parents, and at times the care status of 
        the affected children: https://adrianzenz.medium.com/story-
        45d07b25bcad (see related reporting in the Economist: https://
        www.economist.com/china/2020/10/17/how-xinjiangs-gulag-tears-
        families-apart )

    Second, of different forms of coercive labor, by a) channeling 
vocational training internment camp detainees into forced labor 
workshops, b) subjecting large numbers of seasonal rural laborers to 
internment-style training and indoctrination, followed by work 
placements, and c) the establishment of smaller workshops in villages, 
called ``satellite factories,'' to promote mandatory work placements 
especially for minority women.

    Publications:

   This publication includes evidence based on an internal 
        government spreadsheet of mandatory labor placements along with 
        wage data: https://www.jpolrisk.com/beyond-the-camps-beijings-
        long-term-scheme-of-coercive-labor-poverty-alleviation-and-
        social-control-in-xinjiang/

   Forced labor in cotton picking: https://
        newlinesinstitute.org/china/coercive-labor-in-xinjiang-labor-
        transfer-and-the-mobilization-of-ethnic-minorities-to-pick-
        cotton/

   Forced labor in labor transfers of Uyghurs within Xinjiang 
        and across China, based also on new evidence (``Nankai 
        Report''), and includes a legal analysis that such labor 
        transfers may constitute the crimes against humanity of 
        forcible transfer and of persecution: https://jamestown.org/
        program/coercive-labor-and-forced-displacement-in-xinjiangs-
        cross-regional-labor-transfer-program/

   A report on forced labor transfers in Tibet, with 
        comparisons to Xinjiang: https://jamestown.org/program/
        jamestown-early-warning-brief-xinjiangs-system-of-militarized-
        vocational-training-comes-to-tibet/

    Third, by a campaign to drastically decrease birth rates and 
natural population growth rates, even mandating growth rates for some 
regions that are near or below zero: https://jamestown.org/product/
sterilizations-iuds-and-mandatory-birth-control-the-ccps-campaign-to-
suppress-uyghur-birthrates-in-xinjiang/
    Xinjiang's campaign to suppress minority population growth has been 
complemented with efforts to boost its Han population through increased 
births and in-migration. Additionally, regional authorities appear to 
encourage interethnic marriages (SupChina, 2019). In tandem, these 
three strategies appear to undergird a wider game plan of ethno-racial 
domination.
    ``End the Dominance of the Uyghur Ethnic Group:'' An Analysis of 
Beijing's Population Optimization Strategy in Southern Xinjiang. 
Accepted after peer review for publication with the journal Central 
Asian Survey. Preprint of the author's original manuscript published 
via SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3862512
    This most recent research documents Beijing's intent to commit slow 
genocide in Xinjiang through birth prevention, and estimates that by 
2040, between 2.6 and 4.5 million lives could be prevented as part of a 
strategy to ``optimize'' the ethnic population and increase the Han 
Chinese population share, for counterterrorism purposes (see also the 
Appendix). Compare a related overview and legal argument for genocide 
published by the author together with an expert in international law: 
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/08/genocide-population-xinjiang-
uyghurs/
Summary of the Evidence and of Beijing's Intent with Xinjiang's Ethnic 
        Minority Populations
    Overall, we can see that Beijing carefully prepared its campaign of 
subjugating the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang through 
an unprecedented build-up of different types of police forces, 
complemented by an advanced surveillance system based on the latest 
technologies. Chen Quanguo was selected for his expertise and 
innovation in repressing minority dissent in Tibet. Chen used the first 
9 months of his reign in Xinjiang to prepare the ground, then embarked 
on the internment campaign in tandem with sending another wave of 
cadres to the countryside to act as informants.
    The internment campaign mainly targeted middle-aged males, 
especially heads of households and other social influencers. Their 
release is dependent on the ``good behavior'' of their family members. 
Once released, they are being carefully monitored and liable to return 
to the camps if they behavior is not up to par. Most are released into 
different forms of coercive labor. The internment campaign serves as an 
intermediate, medium-term effort to break the soul of the minorities, 
render them impotent and docile, and pave the way for the long-term 
strategy. Many important intellectuals and cultural influencers have 
been sentenced to long prison terms to eliminate their socio-cultural 
influence.
    The CCP's long-term strategy in Xinjiang consists first in an 
internment and imprisonment campaign that intimidates the population 
and removes key influencers by eventually sentencing them to long 
prison terms (Deutsche Welle, 2020). Second, of parent-child 
separation. Children are reared by the state in highly securitized 
boarding school environments where they must speak Chinese, cannot 
practice religion, and are raised as loyal followers of the Party. This 
is designed to win over and domesticate the young generation. Third, of 
coercive labor, by which men and women are made to work in full-time, 
labor-intensive factory work. This makes the expensive security 
apparatus financially more sustainable, separates the nuclear family, 
gives the Party greater control over and more time with each family 
member, maximizes state control over the young generation, and breaks 
the intergenerational chain of transmitting the cultural and religious 
heritage. Fourth, this strategy is coupled with a drastic reduction of 
birth rates to slow ethnic minority population growth, contain or even 
decrease total population size, rendering the population easier to 
control. Significantly lower numbers of children make it easier for the 
state to focus resources on indoctrinating the young generation, to 
promote more social control and assimilation by subjecting minority 
populations to greater ethnic mixing with the Han, and the reduce the 
need for policing and security. Fifth, this strategy is secured at the 
international level through various pressure strategies and a global 
elite capture of multilateral institutions, including the United 
Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the 
European Union.
    In sum, Beijing's population control strategy consists of a 
combination of internment and imprisonment, coercive labor, parent-
child separation, and birth prevention. All four of these operate in 
tandem. Key intellectuals and community influencers have been sentenced 
to prison terms of often around 20 years, removing their influence and 
curbing intergenerational cultural transmission. Forced labor separates 
families and enables greater state control over the next generation. 
Birth prevention is the cornerstone of raising Han population shares 
and neutralizing minority groups through embedding and dilution. Over 
the next 20 years, all of these aspects will be operating in tandem. 
Within this time frame, we can expect a substantial destruction in part 
resulting from birth prevention together with a severe impact on the 
distinct identity and unique characteristics of these groups as groups.
    The most concerning aspect of official and academic discourses 
about these minorities is that they are demonized and framed as a 
``problem'' that threatens an otherwise ``healthy'' society. Some 
Chinese scholars even called it a ``human problem.'' This language is 
akin to purported statements by Xinjiang officials that problem 
populations are like ``weeds hidden among the crops'' where the state 
will ``need to spray chemicals to kill them all.'' While this statement 
itself refers to re-education in camps and not directly to mass 
slaughter, the framing of Uyghurs and others as a human problem, and 
their concentrated population and growth as a threat to China's 
national security, is a cause for grave concern.
 appendix: the author's testimony to the uyghur tribunal on beijing's 
  population optimization strategy in southern xinjiang (june 7, 2021)
    Previously, we have been able to gather substantial evidence of a 
campaign of birth suppression and mass sterilization from Chinese 
documents and witness statements, together with official data showing 
dramatic declines in birth rates, especially in Xinjiang's ethnic 
minority regions. This evidence raised but did not quite answer the 
question of the ultimate intent with which the Chinese state is 
pursuing these policies, besides inferring that this would make the 
Uyghur populations easier to control by reducing their size. If these 
policies continued, they would depress the ethnic minority population. 
But will they, and what population loss would this suppression 
potentially cause?
    Today, I would like to attempt to provide evidence regarding these 
urgent questions by presenting new research that provides evidence of 
the Chinese state's likely intent to substantially reduce ethnic 
minority natural population growth in Xinjiang in the longer-term by 
``optimizing'' (Chinese: youhua) the ethnic population. This refers to 
a targeted dilution of populations deemed problematic by the state with 
Han Chinese, through in-migration, which can result in so-called 
processes of ``embedding'' (Chinese: qianru).
    Besides providing substantial evidence of intent, my work also 
seeks to quantify the ``destruction in part'' resulting from this 
intent. I broadly estimate that between now and the year 2040, 
Beijing's intent to neutralize the Uyghur population through targeted 
dilution and increased Han population shares is likely to result in the 
loss of 2.6 to 4.5 million lives through birth prevention measures in 
southern Xinjiang alone (not including other ethnic minority regions in 
Xinjiang).
    Between 2015 and 2018, combined natural population growth rates in 
the four prefectures of southern Xinjiang declined by 73 percent. In 
2019, rates continued to decline--in ethnic minority counties, birth 
rates declined by 50 percent, in Han counties by 20 percent, national 
only 4 percent. These birth rate reductions have a leveraged effect on 
natural population growth, because natural population growth is birth 
rate minus death rate, and if birth rates decline but death rates stay 
roughly the same, then when birth rates approach death rates, the 
natural population growth rate percentage-wise declines much faster 
than the birth rate.
    Prefectures with data for both 2018 and 2019, and individual 
counties, were weighted by their respective populations. In the 
resulting population-weighted sample, the average natural population 
growth rate fell from 5.19 per mille in 2018 to 1.66 in 2019, around 
half of the national growth rate. In several regions, recent or 
imminently planned birth rate reductions result in natural population 
growth rates that are near zero, or even below zero. It is my view that 
this growth range is not a coincidence. Rather, I argue that growth 
rates near or below zero are directly consistent with Beijing's long-
term plans for ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Evidence for this claim will 
now be presented.
    An otherwise unremarkable report about an August 2017 health and 
family planning work promotion meeting held by a Health and Family 
Planning Commission in a Uyghur region references an unpublished family 
planning document. Issued in 2017 by Xinjiang's New Population Planning 
Office, its title is: ``Meeting Minutes on Earnestly and Thoroughly 
Implementing the Spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important 
Instructions, Researching and Advancing the Work of Optimizing the 
Ethnic Population Structure in Southern Xinjiang.'' This document has 
not been made public. However, it points us in the right direction, and 
potentially links Xi Jinping himself with this intention regarding 
southern Xinjiang's ethnic population.
    According to a 2017 research paper by a Chinese academic titled 
``Research on Optimizing Southern Xinjiang's Population Resources,'' 
the central government in Beijing ``attaches great importance to the 
problem of Xinjiang's population structure and population security.'' 
Expressions such as ``optimizing the ethnic population structure'' or 
just ``optimizing the population structure'' (in reference to ethnic 
minority regions) are common to the academic literature on Xinjiang's 
counterterrorism. They are consistently linked to birth control.
    The sentiment behind these terms was bluntly expressed by a dean of 
Tarim University at a 2015 academic event. When discussing ``methods to 
solve Xinjiang's problems,'' Liao said that in southern Xinjiang the 
state must ``change the population structure and layout [and] end the 
dominance of the Uyghur ethnic group'' [this refers to their numeric 
dominance in southern Xinjiang]. In a 2016 academic publication, Liao 
argued that the ``underlying reason'' for Xinjiang's unrest was the 
high concentration of Uyghur populations in southern Xinjiang. Due to a 
recent exodus of Han Chinese, ``the imbalance of the ethnic minority 
and Han population composition in southern Xinjiang has reached an 
unbelievably serious degree'' (Liao 2016).
    Liao's sentiments are echoed by a Xu, senior research fellow at the 
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 2014, Xu argued in an interview 
with the Global Times that to counter the terror threat, the state must 
``change southern Xinjiang's population structure'' (Xu 2014).
    Xinjiang's most authoritative voice on this subject is arguably Liu 
Yilei, deputy secretary-general of the party committee of Xinjiang's 
Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), and a dean of Xinjiang 
University. At a July 2020 symposium with 300 experts and scholars from 
across China, Liu noted that despite all progress, ``the root of 
Xinjiang's social stability problems has not yet been resolved.'' Which 
is quite remarkable after all they have done so far. To quote from his 
speech:

        `` . . . the problem in southern Xinjiang is mainly the 
        unbalanced population structure. Population proportion and 
        population security are important foundations for long-term 
        peace and stability. The proportion of the Han population in 
        southern Xinjiang is too low, less than 15 percent. The problem 
        of demographic imbalance is southern Xinjiang's core issue.'' 
        (Liu 2020)

    Note: In the four Uyghur heartland prefecture of southern Xinjiang, 
the Han population share in 2018 was actually only 8.4 percent.

    In 2018, Liu had argued that ``Xinjiang's population structure 
[and] ethnic structure . . . are unreasonable,'' and that Xinjiang must 
``afresh analyze [its] population structure [and] ethnic structure . . 
. from a viewpoint of national security.''
    One of the most sophisticated accounts of this perceived population 
``problem'' is found in a 2017 research paper by Li Xiaoxia, director 
of the Institute of Sociology at the Xinjiang Academy of Social 
Sciences--who has published major reports and also attack pieces 
against myself, she is high profile and well known. In her paper, Li 
argues that

        ``the population gap between ethnic minorities and the Han 
        continues to widen, which has made the concentration of a 
        single ethnic group in certain regions more obvious. The lack 
        of interaction and exchanges between different ethnic groups 
        has caused the three factors of ethnicity, religion and land 
        area to become superimposed, thereby strengthening the 
        viewpoint that one ethnic group owns a [particular] land area, 
        [thereby] weakening national identity and identification with 
        the Chinese Nation, [adversely] impacting peace and long-term 
        stability.
        ``Consequently, controlling the growth rate of the ethnic 
        minority population and adjusting the regional ethnic 
        population structure are considered to be important ways to 
        achieve long-term peace and stability in Xinjiang.'' (Li 2017a, 
        68)

    Similar to Liu Yilei, Li argues that ``the problem of the ethnic 
population structure in southern Xinjiang'' is ``one of the roots of 
the Xinjiang problem.'' (Li 2017a, 77)
    Soon after Li's publication, Xinjiang set up new initiatives to 
implement systematic birth prevention campaigns in ethnic minority 
regions. An increasingly common outcome indicator of these initiatives 
was the mandated target to ``optimize the population structure,'' or 
more commonly to ``balance the population structure.'' To this end, 
county family planning offices are required to:

        ``Formulate the county's mid- and long-term population 
        development plan and annual plan; be responsible for the macro-
        control of the county's newborn population . . . ; manage the 
        county's information system for women of childbearing age . . . 
        '' (e.g. Kuqa County Government 2019)

    By the end of 2018, Xinjiang was fully equipped to control and 
forecast population growth at an extremely detailed level. The region 
had created the preconditions for optimizing its ethnic population 
structure.
    A detailed review of this literature shows that the perceived 
threat arising from concentrated Uyghur populations centers around the 
following four themes.

  1.  Excessive ethnic minority population growth creates a growing 
        rural surplus workforce that that suffers underemployment, 
        creating risks to social stability. Large numbers of unemployed 
        young Uyghurs constitute a ``severely excessive'' rural surplus 
        labor population, created by lax family planning policies, that 
        pose a ``latent threat to the current regime.'' (e.g. Zhao and 
        Song 2017, 30)

  2.  High ethnic minority population density combined with low 
        mobility breeds a ``hardened'' society with a ``dense religious 
        atmosphere,'' creating a breeding ground for religious 
        extremism and terrorism. (e.g. Lu and Guo, 2017, 194)

  3.  High ethnic minority population concentrations create a dangerous 
        sense of identification with their homeland, weakening 
        identification with the central government. (e.g. Li 2017a, 68)

  4.  High ethnic minority population ratios and resulting low Han 
        population shares are a national security risk in sensitive 
        border regions (which includes southern Xinjiang). (e.g. Liang 
        2019; Wang 2018)

    Other Chinese researchers have argued that the ``foundation for 
solving Xinjiang's counterterrorism problem'' is ``to solve the human 
problem.'' (Chinese: rende wenti). Specifically, this requires 
``diluting . . . the proportion of ethnic populations'' by increasing 
the Han population share and reducing the shares of populations with 
``negative energy,'' referring to religious and traditionally-minded 
Uyghurs. This process of targeted ethnic dilution, first proposed by Xi 
Jinping in 2014, is referred to as ``population embedding.'' (Chinese: 
renkou qianru)
    A 2017 paper published by two researchers from the Xinjiang Police 
Academy argues that ``population embedding'' is the key strategy to 
eradicate terrorism by ``rapidly optimizing the population structure'' 
(2017). To quote:

        ``[T]o completely eradicate terrorist crimes in Xinjiang it is 
        necessary to completely eradicate the soil, the growth 
        conditions and the environment in which terrorist mobs produce 
        crimes. [To do so] . . . , it is necessary to rationalize the 
        population structure''

    Specifically, the academics suggest that the establishment of 
embedded communities requires a careful balancing of ``desirable'' 
versus less desirable populations. To quote:

        ``Therefore, optimizing the proportions of the population and 
        improving and enhancing the quality of the population--which is 
        to solve the human problem--is the foundation of solving 
        Xinjiang's counterterrorism (and other) problems. Embedding the 
        population is one of the simplest and most direct ways to solve 
        the human problem. . . .

        ``This will achieve the goal of diluting the proportion of the 
        poor population, the proportion of the unemployed population, 
        the proportion of the low-educated population, the proportion 
        of [certain] ethnic populations, . . . the proportion of the 
        population with a criminal history, etc.''

    Embedding therefore involves a targeted dilution of undesirable 
population segments, such as low-income, lesser-educated and more 
traditionally-minded ethnic minorities, who are seen as more 
susceptible to religious extremism and other so-called ``crimes.''
    In a 2019 publication, Chinese academic Li Ming argues that the 
establishment of embedded communities requires ``calculat[ing] precise 
embedding targets.'' Han to ethnic minority population ratios should 
range between 50:50 and 40:60. (Li 2019) The goal of targeted embedding 
is the creation of a ``cultural counterterrorism'' (Chinese: wenhua 
fankong)--a multi-ethnic environment where ``religious extremism'' is 
unlikely to take root. To quote:

        ``For example, according to the village's cultural 
        counterterrorism needs, the scope of the population with 
        positive energy in the village should be expanded to 80 percent 
        or 90 percent in a planned, step-by-step, and methodical 
        manner, and the scope of the population with negative energy in 
        the village should be reduced to 7 percent, or less than 3 
        percent.'' (Li 2019, 110)

    Here, persons with ``positive energy'' or a ``positive culture'' 
(Chinese: zheng wenhua) are those who are more highly educated, more 
secular and more resistant to the creeping influence of ``religious 
extremist thought'', especially Han populations, while those with 
``negative energy'' (Chinese: fu nengliang) are susceptible to 
``extremist'' thought--meaning Uyghurs. Researchers argue that planners 
must achieve ``cultural counterterrorism'' outcomes in these problem 
regions based on specific quantitative ratios and detailed target 
indicators. (Li 2019, 113)
    To boost Han population shares, Beijing has to get millions of Han 
to move to southern Xinjiang. By 2022, it already plans to settle 
300,000 there. However, the south is also Xinjiang's ecologically most 
fragile region. Arable land and water are scarce. Urbanization and 
industrial development vastly increased the per capita resource 
utilization. Chinese studies say Xinjiang as a whole was already 
overpopulated by 2.3 million persons in 2015, significantly exceeding 
its ecological population carrying capacity. Most of the so-called 
``overpopulation'' is in rural southern Xinjiang--meaning Uyghurs.
    Part of the population optimization is achieved through so-called 
labor transfers of Uyghurs. Labor transfers do not have to imply 
physical relocation, they primarily refer to a transfer of rural 
agricultural surplus laborers (Chinese: fuyu laodongli) out of the 
primary and into secondary and tertiary sectors. This program was 
extended to all of Xinjiang in 2005, and it is conceptually distinct 
from the forced labor of released internment camp detainees (Chinese: 
jiaozhuan renyuan), this latter program began in 2018 and came into 
full force in 2019. The forced labor linked to the camps targets 
predominantly men, given that over 85 percent of such detainees are 
male, whereas the coercive labor transfer scheme targets persons who 
were typically never detained, with a particular focus on getting women 
out of household roles and into full-time work, especially in textile 
industries. According to official figures, Xinjiang had 2.59 million 
rural surplus laborers in 2019--1.65 million of them in the four 
southern Uyghur-majority prefectures. In the first 10 months of 2018, 
364,000 or 13 percent of all labor transfers were outside people's home 
prefectures, and 25,000 or 1 percent were to other provinces. Labor 
transfers have intentionally and disproportionally displaced persons 
from Uyghur-majority regions and especially targeted the southern 
Uyghur heartlands and poor households. In 2018, the overall percentage 
of labor transfers from Xinjiang to outside provinces was only around 
one percent, while labor transfer efforts targeting poor households and 
therefore mostly ethnic minorities transferred 11 percent.
    Even so, labor transfers that displace ethnic minorities by 
coercing them to work in regions outside of southern Xinjiang represent 
comparatively small numbers and are by themselves entirely insufficient 
to achieve the abovementioned population optimization goals. They help 
alleviate the pressure on the land by reducing the Uyghur population in 
southern Xinjiang. A Chinese academic report called the Nankai Report 
admitted that labor transfers are a method to ``reduce Uyghur 
population density in southern Xinjiang.'' However, the numbers of 
transferred laborers are too small, especially given that annual 
transfer numbers often involve the same persons who are transferred 
again each year. Labor transfers do not necessarily constitute 
permanent relocations and in fact often refer to seasonal labor such as 
cotton picking and harvesting. Evidence of longer-term relocation does 
exist but is very limited. Importantly, the Nankai Report notes that 
Uyghurs with problematic or criminal backgrounds are typically not 
accepted for cross-provincial transfers, meaning that labor transfers 
leave so-called ``focus persons'' concentrated in southern Xinjiang, 
which is not in line with population optimization needs.
    As a result, nearly all of the cited academics and officials 
strongly urge birth prevention as a primary means to optimize ethnic 
population ratios. Quantitative analysis confirms that indeed, the only 
way that the state can significantly increase Han population shares 
without having to transfer unrealistically high numbers of Han to 
southern Xinjiang, which would be very expensive, difficult and cause 
severe overpopulation, is to limit ethnic minority population growth.
    My analysis shows that the most ideal range for this growth is in 
fact negative, around ^2.5 per mille. By 2040, the state could boost 
Han population shares in southern Xinjiang to nearly 25 percent by 
settling 1.9 million Han there. This would dilute Uyghur population 
concentrations in line with counterterrorism targets (25 percent Han 
means the state can embed half the Uyghur population at a 50:50 ratio, 
diluting so-called problem populations and neutralizing the ``human 
problem''). This would also align southern Xinjiang's Han population 
share to the currently 34 percent for all of Xinjiang.
    As a result, ethnic minority population in southern Xinjiang would 
shrink from currently 9.5 million to 9 million by 2040, a decline that 
could pass unnoticed by outside observers. A smaller population is also 
easier to control and to assimilate.
    The ``destruction in part'' resulting from these aims is assessed 
as the difference between: a) projected natural population growth 
without substantial government interference, and b) reduced growth 
scenarios due to birth prevention, in line with the state's intent to 
achieve counterterrorism goals by ``optimizing'' the ethnic population 
structure.
    Based on adapted projections that were recently published by 
Chinese researchers in a peer-reviewed international journal, southern 
Xinjiang's ethnic minority population could increase to an estimated 
13.1 million by the year 2040 without severe measures to prevent 
births, broadly based on existing family planning--all the more now 
given a universal right to have up to three children.
    The 4.1 million discrepancy between 9 and 13.1 million can be 
understood to constitute the ``destruction in part'' caused by the 
state's intent to ``optimize'' ethnic population ratios and dilute 
problem populations. This would reduce the projected ethnic minority 
population during the coming 20 years by nearly one third (31 percent).
    My estimate takes account of labor transfers of Uyghurs out of 
southern Xinjiang and assumes realistic figures of annual Han in-
migration into the region.
    How realistic is this plan? Natural population growth in southern 
Xinjiang is already trending towards zero or just below zero. Recently, 
Xinjiang has told family planning offices to ``optimize the population 
structure'' and to carry out ``population monitoring and early 
warning.'' The region has created all the necessary preconditions for 
``optimizing'' its ethnic population structure. It also no longer 
reports birth rates or population counts by region or ethnic group, 
leaving researchers in the dark and covering its tracks.
    These findings shed important new light on Beijing's intent to 
physically destroy in part the Uyghur ethnic group. Other measures 
aimed at achieving ethnic population changes, such as Han in-migration 
and Uyghur out-migration will by themselves not accomplish the goal, 
due in part to ecological, economic and other practical constraints. As 
such, the prevention of Uyghur births is a critical and necessary part 
of China's overall ``optimization'' policy--which is considered to be a 
matter of national security.
    Importantly, understanding the role that birth prevention and long-
term population reduction plays in this overall policy distinguishes 
China's actions against the Uyghurs from its general, national 
population control measures and from its treatment of other ethnic and 
religious minorities, such as Tibetans.
    The new findings presented today should be seen in tandem with 
other pertinent aspects:

   The targeted internment and imprisonment of leading 
        community figures and elites. Many intellectuals have been 
        sentenced to long prison terms. Internal spreadsheets listing 
        families by internment status show that the re-education 
        campaign mainly targets the heads of households, the main 
        influencers within families. In some regions, between 30 and 50 
        percent of heads of households were shown as detained in camps 
        in 2018. This strategy further enables the state to utilize the 
        absence of men, husbands and fathers to separate children from 
        parents and to subject the women to birth control surgeries.

   According to official data, the number of students in 
        Xinjiang who live in boarding facilities increased by 77 
        percent, from half a million to 880,000. Evidence from non-
        public Xinjiang Government spreadsheets shows over 10,000 
        children from Yarkand County (Kashgar Prefecture) as having at 
        least one parent in detention, and 10 percent of them have both 
        parents in detention.

    Beijing's population control strategy consists of a combination of 
internment and imprisonment, coercive labor, parent-child separation, 
and birth prevention. All four of these operate in tandem. Key 
intellectuals and community influencers have been sentenced to prison 
terms of often around 20 years, removing their influence and curbing 
intergenerational cultural transmission. Forced labor separates 
families and enables greater state control over the next generation. 
Birth prevention is the cornerstone of raising Han population shares 
and neutralizing minority groups through embedding and dilution. Over 
the next 20 years, all of these aspects can be expected to be working 
in tandem. Within this time frame, we can expect a substantial 
destruction in part resulting from birth prevention together with a 
severe impact on the distinct identity and unique characteristics of 
these groups as groups.
    The most concerning aspect of official and academic discourses 
about these minorities is that they are demonized and framed as a 
``problem'' that threatens an otherwise ``healthy'' society (cf. 
Roberts 2020, 16-17). Some Chinese scholars even called it a ``human 
problem.'' This language is akin to purported statements by Xinjiang 
officials that problem populations are like ``weeds hidden among the 
crops'' where the state will ``need to spray chemicals to kill them 
all.'' (Zenz 2018, 21) While this statement itself refers to re-
education in camps and not directly to mass slaughter, the framing of 
Uyghurs and others as a human problem, and their concentrated 
population and growth as a threat to China's national security, is a 
cause for grave concern.

    Note: REFERENCES for citations are listed in the full preprint 
manuscript published via SSRN at https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3862512.

    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Dr. Zenz.
    We will now move to Ms. Abbas, and Dr. Richardson to 
follow. There will be two roll call votes at 11:30. I believe 
we will be able to get through both sets of witness testimony. 
Then my intention is we will just keep the hearing rolling and 
have folks attend and come back and forth.
    If I could ask Ms. Abbas to now testify.

  STATEMENT OF RUSHAN ABBAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAMPAIGN FOR 
                    UYGHURS, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Abbas. Thank you so much, Senator Kaine, Senator 
Markey, and Senator Rubio, and the members of the committee for 
holding this hearing, and giving me a chance to testify here.
    Today's Chinese regime has been fed by the West and being 
empowered by the willful ignorance of the international 
community. Beijing is seeking global domination. The genocide 
Uyghurs are facing will be the future of the entire world if we 
do not move quickly, Orwellian surveillance, slavery, forced 
abortions, forced sterilizations, mass institutionalized rape, 
torture, concentration camps, crematoria. We know where this is 
leading. We swear, never again, many years ago, but we are not 
living up to that promise with the right sense of urgency.
    The CCP denying journalists' access to the region means 
that the Chinese regime has been able to control the narrative 
surrounding their genocidal crimes, especially within their own 
borders. This has led to a high number of genocide denialists 
who target survivors and the activists attempting to undermine 
their stories and even threatening their lives.
    I am joining you now from London, where I recently 
testified for the Independent Uyghur Tribunal. What I have 
heard in the past few days from the witnesses, experts, and 
even a perpetrator, himself, has informed that the situation is 
far worse than what we are hearing or speaking. Every word they 
spoke brought tears to my soul. This has been ongoing for 
years, and while we might pat ourselves on the back for making 
progress, Uyghurs back home are facing active genocide, and 
every day that goes by is another hell on earth.
    For myself, each night is a sleepless one, imagining what 
horrors my own sister might be facing. In September of 2018, my 
sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a gentle, nonpolitical, law-abiding 
grandmother was taken by the CCP in retaliation for my advocacy 
and use of free speech here in United States as a U.S. citizen. 
She retired from her medical career early due to poor health.
    In 2 days, it will be her 59th birthday, and the third 
birthday that she has spent in a dungeon without her family. 
The Chinese regime has remained silent about her whereabouts. 
In fact, they published libel against me, and they said that my 
claims of her disappearance were false. They stated that I had 
stolen someone else's photo, and made up a missing relative. 
Chinese state actors use platforms which are forbidden to their 
own residents in order to discredit our advocacy work. In spite 
of this propaganda, it was confirmed in December of last year 
by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that she was 
sentenced harshly to prison on sham charges.
    Like so many Uyghurs, her supposed crimes are kept 
purposely vague. They use the false claims of terrorism and 
separatism to dehumanize and target any Uyghur. Her true crime 
was her ethnic identity, being a Uyghur. Of course, I am one of 
the millions who are suffering, but this situation illustrates 
how family members are being held hostage to punish American 
citizens for utilizing our rights here in a free country.
    My niece, Ziba, is in the room with you right now. She has 
put her entire life on hold, and even moved to the DC area to 
continue to desperately seek to free her mother. Words cannot 
express how painful it is for me to watch her struggle to raise 
her own 3-year-old daughter, while they are dealing with the 
immense pain and the trauma of having her mother held hostage.
    It is not an exaggeration to say that we in the United 
States have long, deliberately ignored all the warning signs of 
this regime, but we are waking up. A regime, blatantly 
committing genocide should not be treated as an equal. We 
cannot continue to treat an international criminal organization 
as a legitimate government. The United States has been at the 
forefront of holding the regime accountable, but we need to see 
more legislation that will offer material protections for 
Uyghur people. We desperately need stronger coordination 
between our allies and the shared-value countries.
    You can find some of my recommendations, including 
regarding legislations in my written testimony. The Uyghur 
issue must be treated as critically urgent. Not only for my 
sister and our people, but for all of the world. If we do not 
stand for humanity today, we will most certainly lose that 
privilege tomorrow. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Abbas follows:]

                 Prepared Statement of Ms. Rushan Abbas

    East Turkistan is home to Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic groups. 
The region is controlled by the Chinese state, and the Chinese 
Communist Party applies pressure to East Turkistan through draconian 
policies. The Uyghur genocide, as it has been designated by the United 
States and several other nations, continues on today. The United States 
has been an important ally in the fight to resist the ongoing 
atrocities, and we look toward even more positive action. These 
concentration camps constitute the largest incarceration of an ethnic 
group since the Holocaust. Since the camps were first identified 
through satellite imagery, the number of camps identified has only 
continued to grow. These concentration camps are obscured by the 
Chinese authorities under the auspices of re-education camps. Uyghurs 
that are taken to the camps are indeed subjected to brainwashing that 
aims to erase their ethnic, religious and cultural identity. However, 
these camps serve the regime's policies of destroying the Uyghur people 
and reshaping the region to maintain their totalitarian grasp.
    For me, this genocide has taken on a deeply personal tone. On June 
12, it will be my sister's birthday. It will be the third birthday that 
she will be spending in the Chinese regime's detention. My sister's 
name is Gulshan Abbas. She had a career as a medical doctor in China, 
which ended when she was forced to retire early due to her delicate 
health. In spite of this, she continued to live her life in the service 
of treating others, often assisting other members of the community at 
their medical appointments.
    On September 5, 2018, I participated on a panel at the Hudson 
Institute \1\ on the news that was coming out of the Uyghur region of 
China, otherwise known as East Turkistan. I spoke on the mass 
internment of Uyghurs in concentration camps constituted a genocide and 
that it was the world's responsibility to act. China was conducting 
these operations under the guise of a ``War on Terror.'' They used 
terms like ``Securitization'' to attempt to normalize their draconian 
and genocidal policies. The reality has always been that this is an 
attempt to ethnically cleanse the region to solidify the power of the 
one party state.
    My sister lives in Urumqi, the capital of East Turkistan. Her 
daughters live here, in the United States. Beginning on September 11, 
they discovered they could not get in touch with her through their 
traditional methods of communication. They informed me that my aunt had 
also been out of contact, apparently on the same day.\2\ The reality 
began to set in that my sister and aunt had been taken into custody by 
the Chinese state. They were targeted because of my activism here in 
the United States, in retaliation for my appearance at the Hudson 
Institute, and for the advocacy activities I had organized throughout 
the previous year.
    For nearly over 2 years, we were given no word on the whereabouts 
of my family members, or whether they were alive. In fact, officials 
within the party slandered my claims of disappearance, insisting that I 
had fabricated this story, that I was not in contact with my sister by 
her own volition. They argued that she had even forsaken contact with 
her daughters, all to make my claims appear ridiculous to the outside 
world. These claims were proven correct. On Christmas Day 2020, we 
received confirmation that my sister had been sentenced to 20 years in 
a prison camp for terrorist activities. My sister, a doctor in a 
government-run hospital, was painted as a terrorist. The reality is 
that the Chinese state views me as an enemy of the state, precisely 
because I am a friend to my people. As a result, all who have committed 
the crime of being related to me, or associating with me, are guilty.
    Even after we lost contact with my sister and began advocating for 
her, we faced attacks and disinformation from the Chinese regime. The 
foreign ministry statements denied the truth. Chinese state media 
outlets, which are used as propaganda platforms, accused Uyghur 
activists, including me, who were looking to free their family members 
as liars and agitators. The Global Times spread the lie that I had made 
up my own sister and stolen her photo online in order to pretend we 
were related. Only a year later, the foreign ministry spokesperson Wang 
Wenbin admitted that the regime had sentenced my sister in a secret 
court to 20 years in prison under charges of ``being associated with 
terrorists.''
    This practice of guilt by association is a common practice in 
nations with weak or nonexistent civil liberties. The Chinese regime 
understands that by targeting the families of those who attempt to 
expose their genocide, they can keep it quiet longer. It's horrific to 
imagine that my sister is in one of these awful places.
    Witnesses like Qelbinur Sidik spoke to the type of teaching that 
goes on inside the camps, where students are forcibly shackled while 
they are required to denounce their faith and endorse the teachings of 
the Chinese Communist Party.\3\ This teaching is tantamount to ethnic 
cleansing. The aim of it is to weaken the status of Uyghurs as an 
ethnic group, which tethers them to the land they occupy. By 
accomplishing this, the Chinese state would see the land of East 
Turkistan more seamlessly incorporated as a territory. This goal plays 
out further in the settler-colonial tactics they employ in family 
separations.
    The fracturing of the Uyghur family unit represents a cruel and 
inhumane operation, but furthers the goal of ethnic erasure as well. In 
addition to this, the CCP sends cadres to live in the homes of Uyghurs 
to ensure their compliance to all policies and prevent the practice of 
traditional customs.
    Though this by itself constitutes a violation of human rights, that 
which is left unsaid is even more intolerable. Within the camps, women 
specifically are facing attacks on their bodies, and their reproductive 
choices are restricted as a means of controlling the population of the 
region. Sexual violence is commonplace, and Uyghur women have testified 
that these practices were performed by the guards that imprisoned them. 
Tursunay Ziyawudun, a survivor of the concentration camps, testified 
last week that:

        ``After I was brought in, there were three police officers, and 
        they did that to me, and once they did it together, and I have 
        no words to describe the inhuman cruelty of the violence, they 
        didn't just beat me, and they didn't just satisfy their sexual 
        desires . . . once they used those iron bars, electric shock 
        wands. They raped me by inserting iron bars, electric batons, 
        and other equipment into my genitals . . . once by them with 
        these electric rods, iron bars and other devices, and three 
        times by them artificial rape. The first time, I was raped by 
        all three of them together.''

    Forced sterilization practices have continued to be reported, as 
more women indicate that they are given medications forcibly that make 
it difficult or impossible for them to have children. Within these 
camps, women report being crowded into cells that are filled beyond 
capacity with insufficient sanitation and nutrition. Ziyawudun said of 
the conditions in the cells:

        ``The small bucket inside our cell was also used to go to the 
        toilet, without a lid. The cell was small and there was no 
        ventilation. The environment was so bad, you can't even 
        imagine. I once told a policeman that this bucket was toxic 
        when left without a lid. He replied that I should be glad that 
        they did not let us drink that. There were two armed policemen 
        at the entrance of each cell.''

    We know the history behind such treatment, and that the purpose of 
it is to dehumanize the people it acts upon. With over three million 
Uyghurs in concentration camps and prisons, this situation has become 
an emergency. In order to operate this massive apparatus of 
detainments, the CCP must be able to create arbitrary accusations at 
will. They do this through the facade of securitization, and 
counterterrorism.
    The claim of terrorism is used as a broad accusation in order to 
provide cover for any illegal detainment or abusive practice the regime 
wishes to engage in. This is regularly employed to silence dissidents, 
activists in diaspora, and to target their families back home. In order 
to evade international accountability, the Chinese state equates this 
campaign in East Turkistan to the global war on terror. They then use 
the lack of due process to deny not only basic civil liberties, but to 
engage in violence against those detained in their prisons.
    The torture being conducted inside the camps has become more clear 
in recent years. A Han Chinese former police officer in Xinjiang 
recently testified: \4\

        ``I have witnessed Uyghurs being tortured. I feel compelled to 
        speak about it because I am a professionally-trained policeman 
        and what I have witnessed fell well below professional policing 
        standards. Uyghur prisoners were sometimes forced to kneel, 
        punched, a plastic bag would be tied over their head in order 
        to induce suffocation and the bag would only be removed when 
        they began struggling to breathe. Sometimes, their limbs were 
        tied, and waterpipes were inserted in their mouths to force 
        water into their lungs.''

    This testimony corroborates the information given by multiple 
survivors of the camps, many of whom were victims of these very 
tactics. With such striking and consistent testimony, it should be 
clear that this a systematic and targeted campaign of genocide.
    What we are witnessing now is the colonial takeover of a region 
through the eradication of its people. It is possible to see the long 
term effects of this in real-time. The Australian Strategic Policy 
Institute recently reported that the decline in birth rates in East 
Turkistan is the largest in the 71 years of U.N. data collection, 
having been cut almost in half.\5\ They have accomplished this by 
making life nearly inhospitable to Uyghur culture, while targeting 
women and children as the inheritors of the new generation. Women are 
forced to undergo sterilization, hysterectomies, and forced abortions. 
Birth control and IUDs have become mandatory. Reports of women in camps 
forced to ingest unknown medication only to later be told they were 
sterile has corroborated the decline in birth rates and is a shared 
experience of camp survivors. The forced control of birth rates of an 
ethnic group is a clear violation of Article II of the United Nations 
Genocide Convention.
    The Chinese regime in East Turkistan has also been carrying out the 
policy of child separation. With millions of Uyghurs in camps or 
prisons, it is estimated that over 880,000 Uyghur children have been 
removed from their homes and sent to state-run orphan facilities. In 
these facilities, children are taught to praise the Communist Party and 
Xi Jinping. These facilities are designed to program the minds of 
children and prevent the continuation of the Uyghur identity and 
culture. The policy of child separation that the regime has implemented 
is further evidence of genocide, and a violation of several articles of 
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
    Used as an exploited and forced labor supply in the production of 
nearly 20 percent of the world's cotton, Uyghurs are forming the 
backbone of the Chinese economy. They are systematically moved to 
Chinese factories, where they work tirelessly to produce goods for 
export. This has historically been the case in genocides in the 20th 
century, since a second-class-citizen workforce offers the opportunity 
for enhanced exploitation and profit for those willing to engage in 
such crimes. By offering China a supply of free labor, the genocide 
rewards state owned enterprises, as well as international firms that 
are complicit in it.
    Outside of the concentration camps and prisons, Uyghurs are subject 
to extreme authoritarian surveillance. Security cameras monitor 
Uyghurs, and can recognize them through facial identification and 
walking gait. Uyghurs are not allowed to pray or practice their faith. 
Mosques are demolished or converted to nightclubs and bars. Uyghur men 
are forced to shave their beards and women are forced to dress less 
modestly. The aforementioned ``Pair Up and Become Family'' program 
forces Uyghurs to allow CCP officials and Han Chinese to live in their 
homes where they can be under constant surveillance.
    With such horrific abuses continuing on, it is vital that we engage 
with the international community in order to build pressure on China. 
Without international solidarity, we cannot hope to affect real change. 
Yet, we watch year after year as more families are torn apart by the 
same tactics that were used against my sister and my aunt, for the 
purpose of intimidation. How can we rely on the information and 
advocacy these activists so bravely give us, if we cannot offer them 
protection for their families living in their homeland? If they are to 
be believed, the Chinese state would argue that these disappearances 
and subsequent sentences are coincidental. This is patently absurd. 
They do these things with the express goal of intimidation, and they do 
them with no regard for due process, for free speech, or for human 
rights. Not just my family, but millions of Uyghurs' families, are in 
grave danger now as we speak.
    Families like the son and daughter of Uyghur intellectual Yalqun 
Rozi, and the daughter of renowned academic Dr. Rahile Dawut, have been 
impacted by the regime's attack on Uyghurs. Yalqun Rozi has been 
imprisoned after being charged with ``subverting the state'' in 2016 
for his role as an editor in producing Uyghur textbooks. Dr. Rahile 
Dawut disappeared on her way to Beijing from Urumqi in 2017, and no 
information has been released on her whereabouts. Both are victims of 
the CCP's genocide on Uyghurs and their systematic targeting of 
intellectuals and academics to destroy the Uyghur culture and 
leadership.
    Kamalturk and Tumaris Yalqun are Uyghurs in America who have faced 
adversity and uncertainty and have tirelessly campaigned for the 
release of their father. Akida Pulat, daughter of Dr. Dawut, has since 
given up her career and become a full time activist, joining Campaign 
for Uyghurs to continue her advocacy. These are only two public 
examples of how Uyghurs globally, and in the United States, are 
affected personally by the regime's genocide. Thousands of Uyghurs in 
America share a similar story of desperately wondering where their 
family is, whether they are safe, and if they will ever see them again.
    In the United States, where I have been a citizen since 1995, there 
is a growing community of Uyghur activists that is expanding and is 
preparing to engage in the defining fight of our lives. I began my 
activism in the mid-eighties in the student protests in East Turkistan, 
and carried on as a broadcaster for Radio Free Asia (RFA). While 
working at RFA, I came to understand that the dissemination of 
information is one of the most powerful tools to be utilized against a 
repressive regime. That lesson has informed the work that I am engaged 
in today.
    Within academia, popular culture, and international sports bodies, 
the full throated defense of Chinese actions remains strong. Largely 
due to economic influence, academics like Jeffrey Sachs are used as 
mouthpieces for the regime within influential institutions. This 
process is formalized on a large scale through the Confucius Institute, 
which forms partnerships with universities around the world in order to 
influence their staff and publications.
    Sports leagues like the National Basketball Association, and the 
International Olympic Committee, are beholden to the interests of the 
Chinese Communist Party. The inaction of these organizations, and their 
endorsement of the Chinese regime's human rights record, sends a clear 
message that the economic influence of Beijing is of more importance 
than the real human cost of that influence. This is true of the film 
industry as well, which has made a point to avoid controversial 
condemnations, and has adopted a business-as-usual stance with the CCP.
    Uyghurs are also facing an unprecedented wave of cyberthreats. 
Organizations are reporting higher than ever rates of hacking and 
phishing attempts, the majority of which originate from within China. 
Activists and survivors are regularly targeted on social media and have 
libel spread about them. We must demand an end to such abuse, which 
seeks to discourage survivors from sharing their story. The Chinese 
State believes that they operate with impunity in this regard, since 
their internet is largely contained. However, the international 
community is capable of action to address these growing attacks and 
disinformation.
    In the case of intimidation, both physical and in cyberspace, 
international bodies and nations which respect human rights must demand 
an end to these threats. The largest threat facing the world is a lack 
of transparency not only in China, but globally. The issue of 
addressing human rights atrocities is precluded by the ability to be 
made aware of them. The CCP understands this and takes every possible 
effort to prevent information about the genocide from flowing freely. 
The U.S. Embassy and consulates in China can be proactive in the 
effort, offering their services to help secure information about 
families who have faced retaliation. We can support the security of 
cyberspace for activists by stating firmly that any attacks against 
international activists is a condemnable offense on the international 
stage.
    It is the responsibility of all journalists to report the situation 
in East Turkistan as clearly as possible. With such limited information 
coming out of the state, we must often rely on the testimony of 
survivors who have left the camps. As victims of the Chinese regime's 
genocide have continued to testify, it has become clear that their 
stories corroborate each other, painting a consistent picture. The 
international media should boost the stories of survivors, their tales 
of sexual violence, forced sterilization, and torture. These are 
actions that the world had long deemed inexcusable, but so far their 
stories have not had the mainstream coverage that could help inform the 
global community.
    One of the critical reasons China desires extensive control over 
East Turkistan is economic. The value derived from cotton production 
and a nearly endless supply of free labor to be directed toward State 
Owned Enterprises offers a flow of profit to a regime at the expense of 
my people. By demanding an end to these practices, and by following 
that demand through with a promise to purge American supply chains of 
this slavery, we can strike a severe blow to the international image, 
and funding, of the regime. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is 
of critical importance for beginning to address the problem. It is also 
an explicit opportunity to state unequivocally that we are a people who 
value human life and dignity over profit.
    There is also an opportunity to include forced labor prevention 
standards into acts that aim to enhance American competitiveness. The 
Endless Frontier Act could serve this purpose. In order to guarantee 
American leadership, we must guarantee not only economic, but moral 
authority. By showing the world that we are committed to being a leader 
in human rights globally, we can create an international precedent that 
endures. The legislative capabilities at our disposal to offer real 
world limitations on China's capability to engage in genocide are 
narrow, but very much real.
    With thousands of Uyghurs outside of East Turkistan seeking safety 
and refuge, they often find themselves in precarious situations in 
countries that have shown themselves to be unfriendly to Uyghurs. 
Uyghurs who have fled to Pakistan as well as neighboring Central Asian 
countries find themselves at risk of deportation, and Uyghurs in Turkey 
who have sought asylum face a similar situation. The United States has 
the opportunity to ensure the safety of Uyghurs fleeing persecution and 
genocide through creating a priority status for Uyghurs seeking asylum 
or refuge. Even in the United States, there are Uyghurs who have waited 
years for their asylum case to be heard in court, and the possibility 
of being sent back to China only to disappear in a concentration camp 
is a grim prospect. The United States should designate Uyghur refugees 
as Priority 2 to allow them a streamlined process and avoid 
notification and extradition by Chinese authorities.
    The United States and our allies have a practical opportunity to 
take action to stop the Uyghur genocide. By limiting economic 
exploitation, demanding an end to genocidal practices, and enabling 
refugee protections, we can apply pressure to the Chinese Communist 
Party while alleviating it for millions of people under threat of their 
control. My sister, and the relatives of Uyghurs all over the world, 
are relying on our resolve to act on their behalf. I hope the world 
will rise to this occasion, and demand an end to Uyghur genocide. If we 
do this today, we will save millions tomorrow.
                         policy recommendations
   The Uyghur American Community would benefit greatly from 
        increased government action in the process of locating and 
        confirming the safety of missing relatives. This would also 
        likely increase the number of activists willing to speak on the 
        genocide, should they feel protected. U.S. embassies and 
        consulates, as well as those of allied countries, could be 
        mobilized for better information-sharing and could request of 
        Chinese officials that they be allowed access to visit/seek out 
        missing individuals.

   The passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. This 
        bill is critical to making sure that Uyghur forced labor is not 
        profitable and forcing brands to extricate their supply chain 
        from the Uyghur region.

   The enforcement of import bans on goods associated with 
        forced labor, made possible through existing regulation and 
        guidance.

   The condemnation of cyber attacks and social media 
        harassment by Chinese state officials and operatives, which 
        serves to discourage participation in activism and stifles 
        international organizing.

   Place higher precedence on investigating CCP foreign 
        interference in threatening and stifling the free speech of 
        Uyghur-Americans.

   Prioritize Uyghur refugees through P2 status so that their 
        asylum and refugee applications are fast tracked.

   The undertaking of an urgent fact finding independent 
        investigation in East Turkistan to counter Chinese narratives 
        and propaganda that deny the testimony of survivors. The United 
        Nations must be granted access to the region in order to fully 
        assess the degree to which the genocide has progressed.

   Chinese officials carrying out genocide should not be 
        permitted to send children to U.S. universities or hide wealth 
        abroad while Uyghurs are facing imprisonment and death for 
        studying abroad. Sanctions should be applied more broadly 
        against all CCP officials and Xi Jinping himself, as well as 
        family members of high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist 
        Party.

   Increase funding to support free and open journalism and 
        reporting in the Uyghur language through Radio Free Asia (RFA). 
        RFA Uyghur service receives tips from many sources which they 
        carefully verify. Due to their understanding of language and 
        cultural contexts, they are the only radio station in the world 
        able to carry out this kind of vital work of exposing the 
        genocidal crimes of the Chinese regime and providing the truth.

----------------
Notes

    \1\ https://www.hudson.org/events/1591-china-s-war-on-terrorism-
and-the-xinjiang-emergency92018
    \2\ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/10/
19/my-aunt-and-sister-in-china-have-vanished-are-they-being-punished-
for-my-activism/
    \3\ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/4/uighur-tribunal-hears-
evidence-of-alleged-china-abuses
    \4\ https://uyghurtribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/07-1000-
JUN-21-UTFW-022-Wang-Leizhan-English.pdf
    \5\ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/12/chinese-uyghur-
policy-causes-unprecedented-fall-in-xinjiang-birthrates

    Senator Kaine. Ms. Abbas, very powerful. Thank you so much.
    Dr. Richardson, please.

   STATEMENT OF DR. SOPHIE RICHARDSON, CHINA DIRECTOR, HUMAN 
                  RIGHTS WATCH, WASHINGTON, DC

    Dr. Richardson. Thank you. Chairman Kaine, Ranking Member 
Rubio, Chairman Markey, Ranking Member Romney. Human Rights 
Watch appreciates this opportunity to testify regarding the 
role of private sector in human rights violations against 
Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in Xinjiang, the 
northwestern region of China.
    Building on 25 years of work documenting human rights 
violations in the Uyghur region, we recently concluded that 
Chinese authorities are committing crimes against humanity, 
against Uyghurs, and Kazakhs, and other Turkic communities. 
Those crimes include imprisonment or other deprivation of 
liberty in violation of international law, persecution of an 
identifiable ethnic or religious group, enforced 
disappearances, torture, murder, and alleged inhumane acts, 
intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to 
mental or physical health, notably forced labor and sexual 
violence.
    The title of this hearing asks the question: ``Where do we 
go from here?'' I am taking the ``we'' to mean both the Biden 
administration and this Congress, which have affirmed their 
commitment to addressing the horrors occurring in the Uyghur 
region.
    So let me state at the outset that the U.S. and like-minded 
democracies can do a great deal. My written testimony addresses 
issues of coerced or forced labor by Uyghurs and other Turkic 
communities, and the role of the Chinese in foreign and private 
sectors, since the beginning of Xinjiang authorities' Strike 
Hard Against Violent Extremism Campaign in 2014.
    To speak to some of the questions that you have put to me 
today, it is our view that, first, Beijing's extreme repression 
and surveillance across the Uyghur region make the human rights 
due diligence expected of companies, from the apparel to the 
Silicon sectors, and from domestic firms to foreign ones, not 
currently possible. This, in turn, has implications for firms 
in the region. Did they know whether they are operating in ways 
that leave them complicit in serious human rights violations? 
For those that say they are sure their operations and supply 
chains are clean, how are they able to prove that? How hard do 
they even try?
    Inspectors cannot visit facilities unannounced, or speak to 
workers without fear of reprisals. Some companies seem 
unwilling or unable to ascertain precise information about 
their own supply chains. A number are disturbingly unaware of 
the role of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in 
the governance and political economy of the region.
    Two U.S. brands--Eileen Fisher and Reformation--have said 
that they will withdraw from the region, and some foreign 
auditing firms have said that they will no longer try to work 
there. Conversely, we have detailed the role of some Chinese 
surveillance technology companies deeply implicated in 
repression in the region.
    In the past 6 months, I have briefed an unprecedented 
number of banks, companies, investment firms, and manufacturers 
that in some way do business in the region. Despite all I 
explained to them, few express a willingness to withdraw, or 
press authorities for better access. On some level the private 
sector and the human rights community faced the same problem, 
intransigence by central, local, and regional officials who 
continue to block unfettered access to the region, deepening 
concerns that those authorities have plenty to hide.
    Some of the tools available to the U.S., such as the Global 
Magnitsky Act, the Entities and Specially Designated Nationals' 
Lists, and withhold and release orders are proving useful. We 
welcome the Administration's efforts with respect to targeted, 
coordinated sanctions, and the unprecedented efforts by 
Congress to end Uyghurs' nightmares. There is so much more to 
do.
    I want, particularly, to highlight the urgent, urgent, 
urgent need to pass the Uyghurs Forced Labor Prevention Act and 
the Speech Act of 2021. The former will help stem the flow of 
goods made with forced labor into the U.S., the latter to more 
carefully scrutinized exports that can be used for serious 
human rights violations.
    These subcommittees could hold a hearing with 
representatives of major U.S. firms with a presence in 
Xinjiang, to assess whether and how they are ensuring that 
their operations are not causing, contributing to, or linked 
with adverse human rights impacts. Please, urge all sectors to 
join the call to action put forward by the Coalition to End 
Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, of which Human Rights Watch 
is a proud member.
    Members of Congress should work closely with democracies 
around the world, with parliamentarians and with governments to 
collaborate around sanctions on individuals, companies, and 
government agencies from China, credibly alleged to be 
complicit in Xinjiang's human rights violations, and to bring 
to justice those responsible for crimes against humanity.
    Allow me to conclude with this recommendation. I urge all 
legislators hearing this testimony to discuss Xinjiang with the 
businesses in your states. We will provide you with the 
information on the human rights crimes taking place so that you 
can make an ethical case to your corporate constituents. 
Avoiding business in Xinjiang something every good company 
should want to do.
    Thank you. I welcome your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Richardson follows:]

              Prepared Statement of Dr. Sophie Richardson
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Dr. Richardson. We will now move 
into 5-minute rounds of questions. Again, for the witnesses, 
you will see Senate members coming and going during this vote 
sequence. I will start, and as soon as I think Senator Markey 
gets back, I may go to vote.
    Dr. Zenz, you had a piece published, I believe, just 
earlier this week, June 8, in Foreign Policy about the slow-
motion genocide, and you used the phrase ``genocide without 
slaughter.'' One of the things that I found really interesting 
about your article is that your research relied very heavily 
upon Chinese Government officials' own statements about what 
they are doing.
    How do Chinese officials currently assess the success of 
their campaign to drive down the Uyghur population through the 
horrific tactics that you describe in your article?
    Dr. Zenz. Their assessment is positive of their own 
policies. Reflections such as by high-profile academic Li 
Xiaoxia, who I cited last year in my research paper, and she 
was used to write the Xinjiang Population Report early in 2021, 
where she is praising the policies, arguing that Uyghur women--
just to slightly paraphrase--are no longer baby-making 
machines. The Chinese is roughly that. That is how it was 
tweeted, famously, by the U.S. Embassy in China; that Uyghur 
women are no longer baby-making machines, and Twitter then 
suspended their account over violation. That was based on a 
research report by one of the high-profile Xinjiang population 
researchers cited in my work last year.
    So they are praising. They are saying women have changed, 
their mind has changed, and they no longer are being abused by 
extremist religious elements to have more children. They now 
can have a better education, and their own career choices. 
There is also a lot of praise about the labor transfer, how it 
is successful in changing minds, changing traditional or 
backward values, and promoting employment and incomes.
    The Chinese Government is full of praise over its own 
policies, and doubtlessly they will be, in 20 years, looking 
back, if they can say: look, we have successfully made Xinjiang 
successful, it is all prosperous. The focus was on development 
and, of course, that is also China's strategy at the United 
Nations, and other places, to change the definition of human 
rights, to economic prosperity and development. So we see them 
full of praise, and no regrets.
    Senator Kaine. This is a very chilling thing. It is not 
just a coordinated campaign. It is a coordinated campaign that, 
in the views of the Chinese officials that are designing it, 
they are feeling good that it is succeeding, and that should 
create a sense of urgency to work on the Forced Labor Bill and 
other bills.
    Dr. Richardson, let me ask you this question. We just 
passed a bill in the Senate. It was a comprehensive bill to try 
to focus on U.S.-China relationship. There was a piece of the 
bill that Senator Romney and I sponsored, dealing with the 
Olympics. We talked about this. Senator Romney, as you know, 
was the head of an Olympics that was held, the Winter Olympics 
Salt Lake City, so he understands the Olympic movement very, 
very well. We chose to not call for a complete boycott in the 
sense of the amateur athletes who have worked hard, we did not 
want to target them, but we have called out at minimum for a 
diplomatic boycott.
    I believe Dr. Zenz's testimony suggested that we should 
also be encouraging corporations to revoke sponsorships, et 
cetera. We were of the opinion that an Olympics would create an 
opportunity around the world to focus attention on China, and 
in that frame of attention, we might do things to grab the 
world's attention, and demonstrate more vividly to everyone the 
atrocities that are being conducted against Uyghurs.
    What advice might you have for us, either with respect to 
policy, or how we interact with corporations, the media 
organizations that are covering the Olympics, so that we can 
use this moment of attention to dramatize what China would 
prefer to keep hidden?
    Dr. Richardson. Thanks for the question, Senator. A couple 
of thoughts for you. We share the position of supporting it; at 
least a diplomatic boycott. The only piece of Senator Romney's 
op-ed with which I disagreed a little bit, was his call to the 
IOC and the idea of having a heart-to-heart with that 
institution. I think that would require finding that the IOC 
has a heart. I have interacted with a few institutions that had 
the power to make positive change, and flatly refuse to do so, 
and spend a lot of energy denying that it had the ability to do 
so.
    I think one of the biggest problems with the IOC relates to 
a key development that we may see, which is about athlete 
activism, and athletes being able to use their own voices to 
express their concerns about being made to compete in a place 
where they may share some of the views that we are all 
expressing this morning. I think the IOC has not taken that on 
board.
    If you were to have a hearing with U.S.-based companies on 
human rights due diligence and China, I would certainly get 
NBC, and a number of the other U.S.-based companies here to 
explain how they are making sure that their engagement in the 
Olympics does not contribute to violations.
    Senator Kaine. A very good idea.
    I am going to now ask Senator Rubio to take over questions.
    Senator Rubio. Let me build off that, Dr. Richardson. There 
are numerous American companies in the tech field, and textiles 
who, frankly, either want to pretend like this problem does not 
exist because they benefit from it, or are slow to get to it, 
or what have you.
    For example, I have repeatedly written and notified Thermo 
Fisher Scientific that their technology is being used by 
Chinese law enforcement to build a DNA database of Uyghurs. 
Despite that, all evidence is that they continue to provide 
these products, which enable these human rights abuses.
    So in your research--it is well-documented that Thermo 
Fisher continues to do this and does not care. The question is, 
in your research, what other companies do you believe are 
enabling these atrocities that we are seeing?
    Dr. Richardson. Senator Rubio, to answer your question 
primarily about Thermo Fisher and its sale of DNA sequencers to 
the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau; at the same time that that 
entity, along with the regional government, was carrying out a 
program called ``Physicals For All,'' and under the guise of a 
free health care program, was gathering DNA samples to which 
the recipients could not really say no.
    We, too, wrote repeatedly to Thermo Fisher asking what 
protections it had in place. To be clear, we were never able to 
specifically show that Thermo Fisher's sequencers were used in 
that campaign, but that they were being sold at this same time, 
and would not answer key questions.
    I think the bigger issue that it flags up, and part of the 
reason we are enthusiastic about this Speech Act is that it was 
not illegal then or now for Thermo Fisher to sell that kind of 
technology. A part of our discussion with them was about the 
very idea that that technology could be used for gross human 
rights violations. I think the Speech Act is very strong in 
suggesting that all different kinds of technologies that lots 
of American companies sell to China either for surveillance or 
other kinds of technology purposes could be used for appalling 
human rights violations.
    There is no effective quick check on that, to try to, as 
you know better than I do, effectively export control a single 
technology takes years. So there has to be some kind of upfront 
scrutiny of companies that are making lots of money 
contributing to a highly repressive environment.
    Senator Rubio. Well, some people would hear this and say, 
okay, it is terrible, but what is so dangerous about collecting 
the DNA of people? You have talked about some of the grotesque 
human rights violation. I can certainly speculate about the 
ability to design, and if this stuff sounds like science 
fiction, it really is not, the ability to design bio weapons, 
and bio material that target people of a certain genetic 
makeup, but spare people have a different genetic makeup.
    Look, there are advantages to having DNA data, because it 
allows you a huge advantage in terms of testing for 
biomedicine. Then there are nefarious uses of it. When you talk 
about the grotesque human rights violations that could 
potentially result from collecting this DNA, are there any sort 
of specific things you have in mind that we suspect they could 
use it for? Have been used for in the past? Based on what we 
understand about scientific advances could be used. What 
exactly is the threat of this DNA collection, so that people 
better understand?
    Dr. Richardson. Well, even before the DNA is actually used 
for any purpose, the fact that it is collected coercively in an 
environment where there are no effective privacy rights, and 
really no means of recourse, we associate ourselves with the 
U.N. expert who describes Xinjiang as a rights-free zone.
    What we have documented authorities doing is building DNA 
databases to be able, not just to employ it for some of the 
purposes you have described, but to be able to identify the 
relationships between people. So that if, for example, the 
authorities want to find person A, for whatever reason, and 
they know that person A is related through a DNA search to 
person B, and they could find person B, and lean on that person 
to find person A, it gives them that much more power to be able 
to control a population and surveil it. We are also extremely 
concerned about all sorts of genotyping, about facial 
recognition, and how this DNA is sold and used for medical and 
other scientific research purposes in an environment where 
there are no controls on this, none.
    Senator Kaine. Senator Hagerty.
    Senator Hagerty. Thank you, Senator Kaine. Good to be with 
you today.
    Before we start, I want to commend former Secretary of 
State Mike Pompeo for designating the Chinese Communist Party 
as being engaged in genocide and crimes against humanity when 
it comes to the Uyghur and the Turkic population there in 
China. Also, I want to applaud Secretary of State Blinken for 
upholding that determination.
    In May, Congressman Michael McCaul asked of John Kerry, the 
Biden administration special envoy for climate change, the 
following: ``Can you assure us that slave labor coming out of 
China where genocide is taking place, as we speak, are never a 
part of the climate solution in the United States?'' In that 
hearing, Special Envoy Kerry acknowledged and said that, 
``Solar panels in some cases are being produced by forced 
labor.''
    Ms. Abbas, do you agree with assessments that solar panels 
produced in China are often produced using slave labor?
    Ms. Abbas. Thank you for that question. Yes. The solar 
panels are coming from the Uyghur region and the Uyghur forced 
labor is inside the solar supply chain, where the Uyghurs are 
forced to mine parts in the desert to create solar panel cells. 
These companies also buy lots of the Uyghurs for their 
manufacturing process. So in order to fight this normalization 
of modern day slavery, we should pay attention to every 
industry, including solar panel.
    You make a really good point here, Senator, about the 
climate change. While Chinese regime is not paying attention to 
human beings, they are killing people, they are running active 
genocide, and they are conducting active genocide. Are they 
going to care for climate change? They always will engage with 
any kind of conversations with China, including the climate 
change. China's crimes against humanity should be up in the 
forefront, because many companies, they are making money from 
the Uyghurs' blood, sweat, and the tears for their economic 
advantage, and the lobbying against those interests.
    Senator Hagerty. I appreciate that point. I am very 
concerned, as are you, that we place our pressure toward green 
policies and climate agenda, ahead of slave labor and human 
rights. I think we all know that slave labor, Uyghur slave 
labor is used, not only to create the solar panels, but also to 
mine the coal. A tremendous amount of coal is burnt, it takes a 
tremendous amount of energy to create these silica panels. I 
hope that we can avoid being in a situation where we are 
putting, again, green policy ahead of human rights, and 
supporting slave labor that is being promoted by the Chinese 
Communist Party against the Uyghur population.
    I would like to turn to history for a moment. The Chinese 
Communist Party is aggressively pursuing a policy of 
systematically repressing multiple ethnic minority groups 
including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians and ethnic Koreans. 
Today, what we call China has a long and complex history, 
including many diverse ethnicities and cultures, many changes 
in geographic borders.
    This question is for Dr. Zenz. Dr. Zenz, how does the 
Chinese Communist Party use and abuse China's complicated 
history to advance the Chinese Communist Party's geographic, 
ethnic, and cultural claims, and even justify the Party's 
heavy-handed approach towards ethnic minorities in China?
    Dr. Zenz. I think one of the most pertinent cases for this 
is the fact that in a recent Chinese state media documentary, a 
number of well-known Uyghur intellectuals and textbook editors 
were paraded with shaven heads and prison clothing, having been 
sentenced to long prison terms over government-approved 
textbooks that were published several years ago, for supposedly 
promoting pan-Turkism and separatism and now are languishing in 
prison.
    The Chinese Government has embarked on a strong propaganda 
strategy to argue that the Uyghurs have always been Chinese. 
Pan-Turkism is the expression used for giving testimony to the 
Turkic heritage of the Uyghurs who are manifestly a Turkic 
people, with the Turkic language, and ethnicity, et cetera.
    However, any association with the Turkic roots, and 
supposedly in opposition to the Chinese roots, it is now being 
punished as a crime, and people are even put into prisons, and 
internment camps, and re-education camps for doing so. So China 
is engaging in sort of this--and of course Chinese academics 
are actively rewriting history, of course they have been, but 
it has become even more intensified.
    Similar things are happening in Tibet. Tibet has always 
been part of China, but in Xinjiang it has become particularly 
extreme with parading these intellectuals and textbook editors, 
and now they are confessing their crime, just for including 
like Uyghur children's stories, and a sort of standard Uyghur 
literature in textbooks which were government-approved.
    Senator Hagerty. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Zenz.
    Senator Markey. The gentleman's time has expired. I 
recognize myself for a round of questions.
    Radio Free Asia's Uyghur service has been at the forefront 
of reporting on the brutal detention of millions of Uyghurs and 
Muslim atrocities in China's Far West, making it impossible for 
the Chinese Government to deny the existence of the detention 
camps and create the surveillance state, which they are doing.
    I have long championed the RFA's Uyghur service, despite 
the Chinese Government's efforts to silence reporters by 
detaining and harassing their family members inside of China. I 
concluded that we had to do something about it. So in the 
Strategic Competition Act passed by the Senate this week, my 
provision was included to increase by over 50 percent to $70 
million a year of the Radio Free Asia, Uyghur-only news 
service.
    Dr. Richardson, how important do you consider Radio Free 
Asia and its work in China, especially with regard to Xinjiang?
    Dr. Richardson. Sorry, Senator Markey. I am struggling for 
the right adjective here; essential, critical, like oxygen. 
Radio Free Asia, broadly speaking, plays an incredibly 
important role in bringing stories from the ground across Asia, 
and particularly in closed countries like China, to light, and 
often becomes sort of the first cut at international media 
taking up those stories.
    The price that some Uyghur service journalists have played 
for their reporting is horrific. Gulchehra Hoja, an award-
winning journalist has had her parents, her elderly parents 
persecuted as a result of her reporting.
    Senator Markey. Yes. So the Chinese Government has inflamed 
anti-Uyghur sentiment and Islamophobia throughout China through 
its portrayal of Uyghurs, in its state-controlled media. So we 
have to have a counter----
    Dr. Richardson. Absolutely.
    Senator Markey. --which is inside that country. Dr. 
Richardson, what are the implications inside China with these 
negative media portrayals, and constant fear-mongering, 
particularly in terms of how the Han majority interacts with 
the Uyghurs?
    Dr. Richardson. Senator, I think for the most part, it is 
the result one would expect. When people have no access to 
independent media, they have no alternative except what 
information the state provides them, but I want to point to a 
scrap of optimism. When recently there was quite a debate about 
H&M in China, and other companies that had expressed concern 
about using Xinjiang cotton, and for the first time ever, 
really, the term Xinjiang was not blocked on Weibo largely to 
allow for people to express hostility towards these companies.
    It also created the opportunity for some people across 
China to say: Wait, what is going on in Xinjiang? Why is there 
so much concern? What is happening in the solar or the cotton 
sector? That was, I think, a very healthy sign when people have 
access to information, they will ask questions.
    Senator Markey. Yes. Ms. Abbas, thank you for your activism 
and your work to shed light on the atrocities being committed 
by the Chinese Government. Also, for your support for Uyghur 
communities here in the United States. I know that you are very 
focused on this issue, we have a very vibrant Uyghur community 
in Massachusetts, and so it is important that your voice is 
there, and it is an outlet for those seeking to share their 
experiences.
    Is there a message, Ms. Abbas, that you would like to send 
to those Uyghurs and other persecuted minority groups who are 
watching you at this hearing today?
    Ms. Abbas. Each time when we have hearings like this, and 
they have the attention of our brave lawmakers who are 
defending the humanity, and they are trying to raise awareness 
and to do something, take some tangible action, that give hope 
for Uyghur people.
    I want to say that the Uyghurs in Diaspora should not 
forget that they are not alone. There are people like yourself, 
like the senators here, and the many people who are defending 
the conscience of the world, which is being a test with this 
current atrocity, current genocide. They are people being voice 
of these voiceless and defending those defenseless Uyghur 
people.
    So stay strong, have hope, and do not look at people like 
myself and my family as being retaliated because I spoke out. 
Do not stay silent, and take action and be the voice for your 
families if they are being taken. We are facing barrage of 
disinformation and attacks on our activists, and the witnesses 
too, and the survivors, by the Chinese regime.
    The Radio Free Asia journalists are doing amazing job with 
covering. They are the first one to report the detention of my 
sister in June 2020. They are the one actually who reported 
with the investigative journalism was Mr. Gulcan Iza's mother's 
death. So we should use whatever we can, and prioritize funding 
the independent organizations like Radio Free Asia service to 
cover the genocide.
    So there are a lot of good things are happening and that 
gives us the hope and the fuel ourselves to continue to fight 
against this brutal, barbaric regime.
    Senator Markey. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you 
for your courage.
    Senator Romney.
    Senator Romney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Dr. Zenz, a question to you, and perhaps two questions to 
you. Normally practices such as this would yield extraordinary 
outpourings of anger and angst from people around the world; 
that governments would be very angry and would express this in 
many ways, given what is happening to the Uyghur people. So I 
guess I am asking you to help analyze the mind of Xi Jinping 
and the Communist Chinese Party. Why do you believe they felt 
they could go ahead and do this? What is their purpose for 
doing so? Why do they think they would get away with it?
    Secondly, and this may be impossible to predict, but who is 
next? Given what they have done to Tibet, what they are doing 
with the people of Hong Kong, what they are doing to other 
ethnic minorities within China, what they are doing with the 
Uyghur people, who might be next? So again, two parts: One, why 
are they doing this? And two, who is next?
    Dr. Zenz. Yes. Thank you. I will quickly respond to the 
second question: ``Who is next?'' I believe anyone who is next, 
who is systematically acting not in line or even in discord, or 
even against the Chinese Government in a more organized or 
institutionalized way. I am thinking of instituted religion, be 
it Falun Gong, House Church Christians, Muslim groups outside 
of Xinjiang, even Marxists students have been targeted.
    To also answer that question, I predict that the current 
increasing repression, not just of Uyghurs and Tibetans, but of 
anybody within the Chinese Communist Party control, is going to 
spiral into increasing paranoia of control, because that is the 
tendency, that is the historic precedence.
    If you look at Stalin, if you look at Hitler, if you look 
at these autocrats there is--repression only begets more 
repression, and control begets a loss of trust, which actually 
makes repression worse. Who is to say who is next in line in 
what I believe is a growing paranoia within the regime.
    The question of why, and especially the Uyghurs, is because 
the Chinese Government did realize at some point that they had 
lost control. They were not going to win over the Uyghurs, the 
Uyghurs were too concentrated. New way of looking at their 
issue of population, the human threat. So Uyghurs is one of the 
largest ethnic groups. It is 11, now close to 12 million people 
growing at a good speed, many academic studies that I have 
researched say: the Uyghurs are too concentrated, it is almost 
impossible to penetrate, break up the society, it is almost 
impossible to dilute the negative effect of their religion.
    So the breaking up, and the breaking of this large entity 
that has engaged in various, including violent acts of 
resistance against repression, basically Xinjiang's 
geopolitical importance was always high, but further increased 
with the Belt and Road Initiative, and of course Xi Jinping's 
drive to just have complete control.
    So this initiative is a long-term experiment to, for good, 
really deal, break, and assimilate, and to some extent destroy 
the group's entity and identity as a group. Of course we see 
some application of that elsewhere. Tibetans also subjected to 
a coercive, or similar trait pressures on an unprecedented 
scale. It is like a micromanagement of poverty alleviation, 
really managing people's livelihoods, and changing them for 
good.
    So Xinjiang is in some sense a laboratory, but the reason 
is, the Uyghurs are concentrated, there are many of them, they 
have shown great resilience to assimilation, and they did 
engage in targeted acts of violent resistance, albeit not of 
the nature of the government claims it to be, as organized 
terrorism. That is why they were targeted.
    Senator Romney. Thank you.
    Ms. Abbas, let me turn to you for a moment. First, to 
underscore my and my colleagues' horror at what is occurring 
for your sister and your family. Our hearts bleed, as we think 
of what you are enduring, and what your family is enduring.
    Let me ask you, to date, whether any of the pressure that 
you are seeing from the international community has had any 
impact on lessening the abuses that the Communist Chinese Party 
is perpetrating against the Uyghur people. Has there been any 
reduction in the atrocities, or has it continued unabated?
    Ms. Abbas. We see some pressure coming out. They told 
Uyghurs they were not allowed to go to mosques. Now they are 
calling them, come back, so they can tell the world, and that 
they can show the world that the Uyghurs are still living 
normal lives. Also, whenever when there is like a raise of the 
case of certain individuals, or for the family members who is 
being detained, they are showing the video clips, or pictures, 
or bring them out and they are speaking.
    So I am sure there are paying attention, and sanctions 
always work but should continue of sanctioning the 
perpetrators, the officials, and also their children should not 
be allowed to enjoy the freedom that we have in the United 
States or other parts of the world. So more sanctions will be 
helpful, whatever we can to take tangible action to stop this 
genocide.
    As our wonderful panelists here, Dr. Sophie Richardson, and 
Adrian Zenz's great work, we see that the Uyghur women's bodies 
are the battle ground in this genocide right now. If this 
continues, it will be too late for the Uyghur people, but if we 
do anything to stop this evil regime right now, might not be 
too late to save the future of this free and the democratic 
world, which our children and grandchildren will inherit from 
us, and everything that we have worked so hard in the past 75 
years, we can still save the free, democratic world before the 
Chinese regime implements all that.
    As they mentioned earlier, they tried with the Uyghurs, and 
Tibetans, and now look at Hong Kong, what is happening in Hong 
Kong. Also, they are exporting the surveillance system, and 
even maybe the slave labor, forced labor to other countries as 
well while they are already exporting the surveillance system 
to more than 18 countries as we know. So it is very critical 
for us to take this last chance to stop this, and save the 
world.
    Senator Romney. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Senator Romney.
    I believe Senators Cardin and Coons might come back. So I 
think what I will do is start a second round of questions for 
anyone who has them. I know I am going to jump in because I 
want to ask questions about the reach of this Uyghurs 
persecution into other nations.
    We have talked a lot about the challenges within. But Ms. 
Abbas gave a talk at a think tank in 2018, and within 6 days in 
China, in Xinjiang, her sister and, I believe, mother initially 
were both arrested. Recent news reports suggest that three U.S. 
allies--the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Egypt--have been 
detaining Uyghurs who live in their countries and allowing them 
to be deported back to China.
    A story that Senator Rubio referenced from earlier this 
week on CNN, a husband and wife and child, and the wife was 
pregnant with the second child. The husband was arrested in 
Dubai, detained. The wife made every effort to get the husband 
released to find out what was the challenge. The husband said, 
``I am not going to be released. You should move to Turkey 
where you will be more protected as a member of this Turkic 
minority.'' So she went with her child, and eventually gave 
birth to a second child, and has not seen her husband now in 
years because he was deported back to China.
    What might we do, Dr. Richardson, let us focus on this 
issue. You know, talking tough with our allies, and telling 
them not to do this. We have a lot of relations with Egypt, the 
UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and it strikes me that we should be 
having very candid discussions with them to get them to not be 
complicit in these forced deportation campaigns that are part 
of this long, global reach to persecute Uyghurs. Share your 
thoughts on this issue.
    Dr. Richardson. Sure, Senator Kaine. The first case that we 
actually wrote about was in Cambodia, Christmas 2009, when a 
group of Uyghurs who actually had already received a U.N. High 
Commissioner for refugees, persons of concern letters, were put 
on a plane and sent back to China. These were people who had 
already been designated as having legitimate cases.
    It has been a real struggle across different parts of Asia, 
Central Asia, and increasingly the Middle East. I think one of 
the most important things that the U.S. could easily do with 
allies, would be not just have those candid conversations, but 
to offer, in a coordinated fashion, to step in and take those 
people, shelter them, offer to give them some kind of a safe 
haven. At least until they are able to do what international 
law requires, which is to contest their removal before a 
competent court. Even better would be to give them asylum right 
away, to give them some protected status.
    The more that that could be coordinated across allies so 
that no one country has to step in, I think would be extremely 
important. Not a week goes by when we are not dealing with a 
case, some place, of somebody who is stuck, in jeopardy, and at 
risk of being sent back. Many governments also, literally, just 
do not understand who Uyghurs are.
    They do not understand that people, simply by virtue of 
their ethnicity, are at disproportionate risk if they are 
returned. To many immigration officials, they are all just 
people with Chinese passports. So I think there is a lot that 
actually could be done that would also send a very powerful 
message that people will be given refuge.
    Senator Kaine. So just to follow up, I want to make sure I 
understand what you are suggesting. You would say that if 
somebody was going to be detained in another country, and 
clearly it looked like that detention was just oriented toward 
pulling them back to China because they are Uyghurs, the U.S. 
or other nations could allow them to apply for asylum, 
demonstrating under U.S. law the well justified fear of 
persecution. If they would do that, we might be able to work, 
especially if this happens in a nation that is an ally of the 
United States, we might be able to work to have folks brought 
here under the traditional asylum rules. Other nations would 
participate in that as well. That is a good thought to put on 
the table for us to contemplate. I appreciate that.
    Let me see if Senator Markey has additional questions.
    Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chinese Government's genocide is enabled by its massive 
and invasive surveillance system deployed throughout Xinjiang. 
We also know that a number of United States companies, 
technology companies, have been involved and profited from the 
Chinese Government's authoritarian surveillance industry, and 
that many of their products are being used in Xinjiang right 
now, today, as we are sitting here.
    Dr. Zenz, in your opinion, how critical has technology been 
to the Chinese Government's campaign against the Uyghurs? Has 
it helped to enable them to commit their genocide? If you 
would, name the United States companies and what you think 
their actions should be in the future in terms of their aiding 
and abetting the genocide.
    Dr. Zenz. Yes. So this is a somewhat complicated question. 
A lot of the technology transfer from [inaudible]. I am 
personally aware of the use of Nvidia graphics chips in 
technologies because of the high processing capacity. The 
Chinese are very actively trying to reduce their dependence on 
U.S. technology. I do not believe that the dependence on U.S. 
technology has been as direct as we would like it to be in 
order to establish sort of problematic plays. So I think this 
is very much an issue for further research. I also have to say 
that this is not a topic that I have done a lot of direct 
research on, myself.
    Senator Markey. That is great.
    How about you, Dr. Richardson, have you had a chance to 
look at it?
    Dr. Richardson. We have looked mostly at what Thermo 
Fisher's engagement was but--and I would endorse what Professor 
Zenz just said, it is a--I am trying to think of a succinct way 
to explain this. It is very hard to know exactly what U.S. or 
any other countries' businesses are actually doing in Xinjiang. 
One of the best things that can come out of this hearing would 
be to task CRS with doing research on that, so that we could 
all have the same information.
    The surveillance networks there are incredibly complex. We 
have primarily looked at the Chinese firms that are engaged in 
it, but you could easily take the list that ChinaFile published 
of Forbes 500 companies a few years ago, pick the American ones 
and write them and ask them what their human rights due 
diligence strategies are, and how deeply enmeshed in the 
surveillance operations in the region they are.
    Senator Markey. Okay. Thank you.
    Dr. Abbas, what would you like to see done in order to 
ensure that Uyghur families here in the United States are not 
intimidated, not harassed by Chinese officials, or subnational 
groups that use communications technologies to torment those 
families that are here in the United States?
    Ms. Abbas. We need to pass some legislation to deal with 
the threats against the Uyghur-Americans. Because as you 
mentioned, the Uyghurs are getting threatened by the Chinese 
regime, plus they are taking their family members and they are 
threatening them. So we should investigate the interference by 
the regime against the Uyghur-Americans. This includes the 
threats against the health and the wellbeing of their Uyghurs, 
as well as their families back home.
    There are many, of course, the videos of the Uyghur 
families are denouncing or disowning the Uyghurs in America, 
and that should be condemned and be countered with the truth. 
That Senator Kaine represents the largest Uyghur-American 
community in the U.S., and we really appreciate him 
highlighting the Uyghurs' case.
    That, actually, we believe keep the family members alive, 
just the highlighting, speaking. We need to investigate the 
presence of the CCP officials spreading propaganda on American 
campuses, or our free social media platforms, they are doing 
everything they can to dehumanizing the activists, and also 
spreading disinformation. So that should stop.
    Senator Markey. I agree with you. I think it should be high 
on the American policy agenda to put a plan in place in order 
to give protections to Uyghur-Americans, in their ability 
inside of our own country, to speak freely and without fear. We 
know how good the Chinese are at using modern 
telecommunications technologies in order to put fear in the 
hearts of Uyghurs-Americans, and we have to do everything we 
can as a government, to protect those people.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Kaine. Senator, Romney, you have other questions?
    Senator Romney. Yes. Thank you.
    Dr. Richardson, I was not familiar with the deportations of 
Uyghurs to China. What is the purpose of that from the Chinese 
standpoint? Is it to silence outspoken individuals? Or is it to 
try and bring all Uyghurs back to China? What is the intent, do 
you believe, of this effort?
    Dr. Richardson. Senator, it is a peculiar pathology. Most 
governments, when people flee, are fine for them to go. They do 
not want them back.
    Senator Romney. Yes.
    Dr. Richardson. It is also peculiar because the people who 
have been forced to return are not necessarily political 
activists or known government critics. Many of the cases that 
we know about are simply ordinary people, they are business 
people, they are scholars, and they are not sensitive in any 
particular way. So we can only conclude that the Chinese 
Government's goal is to try to forcibly return all Uyghurs and 
other Turkic Muslims to the country, so that they are unable to 
share their stories with people outside.
    I think that is a very frightening impulse and the fact 
that so many governments have complied with it and assisted it, 
is very worrying.
    Senator Romney. Yes. I have no sense of the extent of the 
Uyghur Diaspora, and where individuals have gone to, where they 
live. Do you have any sense of, sort of, what the population of 
the Diaspora is, and where it might be concentrated, if it is 
concentrated?
    Dr. Richardson. Well, the largest communities are here, and 
Germany and Turkey, and in Australia, but the places where we 
are seeing problems are--or I have to say, I am sure there are 
people being sent back we will never know about, particularly 
from Central Asia, for example. Shanghai Cooperation 
Organization states that are not exactly devoted adherence of 
human rights or refugee policy.
    Some of the cases that we have seen recently, people in 
Pakistan, people in West Africa, in various Gulf States. We 
will never know how many people got sent back. It is only in, I 
would say, the last 7 or 8 years, and partly due to the rise of 
social media, that people in distress are able to telegraph 
what is happening to them, which allows the other people in the 
Diaspora and organizations like ours to get on the phone and 
start making noise so that people do not get sent back. We do 
not always succeed.
    Senator Romney. Dr. Zenz made a comment a moment ago that 
struck me very powerfully. That is that what we are seeing is 
mass atrocity without mass slaughter. It is the atrocity of 
genocide without the attendant slaughter of genocide. This 
deportation effort from nations around the world is one in the 
sense that there really is an effort to not only eliminate the 
Uyghurs in China itself, but to eliminate them throughout the 
world. It reminds us of a period in the history of the world 
which is abhorrent, and it is going on. Most of the nations of 
the world have normal relations with the country that is doing 
this. It is extraordinary.
    The Senate just passed legislation mandating a diplomatic 
boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing and which I believe is 
very appropriate. I know there is concern about sponsorships, 
and trying to encourage companies not to sponsor the Olympics. 
The challenge, by the way, given the way the Olympics works, is 
that the companies buy sponsorships for multiple games. So they 
can not pick and choose a particular country. That is to 
prevent them from doing what we would like them to do here, 
which is boycotting China's games.
    Are there things we need to do or be aware of to prevent 
China from being able to hide from the atrocity of the Uyghur 
circumstances as the Olympics arrive? Are there efforts that 
come to your mind that we should have in mind to try and draw 
attention to, as opposed to prevent the hiding of what is 
happening to the Uyghurs? Please. Yes. Dr. Richardson.
    Dr. Richardson. Thank you. We talked about the Olympics a 
little bit, I think, Senator, while you were voting. I think 
there are a lot of things that the U.S. can and should do. I 
think these Olympics are going to be a consular challenge of 
enormous proportions.
    Let us imagine, for example, U.S. athletes who go and want 
to post on social media, that they expect to be private, 
concerns about Uyghurs, or they are asking questions, or they 
are simply having conversations with their family members, that 
authorities decide are problematic, and----
    Senator Romney. --and they could be arrested for doing so 
under Chinese law.
    Dr. Richardson. They should expect to be surveilled, 
without question.
    Senator Romney. Yes.
    Dr. Richardson. It is worth pointing out that we did write 
to all of the top sponsors, and to NBC, asking what their human 
rights due diligence strategies were around these games, and 
none of them has replied.
    Senator Romney. Yes. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Kaine. Well, what an important hearing, and that 
last answer suggests that we might want to write them and they 
better reply. I think you have all, each of the three witnesses 
have given us some very concrete steps we can take, whether it 
is with respect of Forced Labor Bill, legislation to protect 
Uyghurs in the United States, activities with respect to our 
allies who are participating in deportation. So we have come 
with a lot of to-dos out of this meeting. I think it is very, 
very important.
    I want to thank all of our witnesses. I also want to 
introduce into the record, if there is no objection, two 
documents. One is the recent article in foreign policy that Dr. 
Zenz has offered, ``Beijing Plans a Slow Genocide in 
Xinjiang,'' Adrian Zenz and Erin Rosenberg, June 8, 2021. With 
no objection, we will put that into the record.

[Editor's note.--The information referred to above can be found 
in the ``Additional Material Submitted for the Record'' section 
at the end of this hearing.]

    Senator Kaine. Second, today, Amnesty International has 
issued a new report, ``China's Mass Interment, Torture and 
Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang.''
    I would like to ask that that report be entered into the 
record as well. There being no objection that will happen.

[Editor's note.--The report submitted by Senator Kaine for the 
record was too voluminous to include in the printed hearing. It 
will be retained in the permanent record of the committee.]

    Senator Kaine. The record will remain open in case other 
committee members have questions for our witnesses. I would ask 
that those questions be submitted by close of business 
tomorrow. I would encourage the witnesses if there are 
additional questions that you be prompt and comprehensive in 
responses.
    I really want to thank these witnesses. All three of you 
have helped us just shine a spotlight on something that we need 
to know more about, and so does the world, and you have given 
us concrete steps we can take to improve the lives of this 
really important group of people. We will do so.
    With that, the committee is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:28 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
                              ----------                              


              Additional Material Submitted for the Record


Foreign Policy Article, ``Beijing Plans a Slow Genocide in Xinjiang,'' 
            by Adrian Zenz and Erin Rosenberg, June 8, 2021
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


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