[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 184 (Sunday, October 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6598-S6599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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  SENATE RESOLUTION 760--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
 ATROCITIES PERPETRATED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 
  CHINA AGAINST UYGHURS, ETHNIC KAZAKHS, KYRGYZ, AND MEMBERS OF OTHER 
    MUSLIM MINORITY GROUPS IN THE XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION 
                          CONSTITUTES GENOCIDE

  Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Risch, Mr. 
Merkley, and Mr. Cardin) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

[[Page S6599]]

  


                              S. Res. 760

       Whereas Article 2 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on 
     the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which 
     both the United States and the People's Republic of China 
     have ratified, defines genocide as ``any of the following 
     acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a 
     national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) 
     killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or 
     mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately 
     inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to 
     bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) 
     imposing measures intended to prevent births within the 
     group; [or] forcibly transferring children of the group to 
     another group.'';
       Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention 
     Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441) states that it is the policy 
     of the United States to ``regard the prevention of atrocities 
     as in its national interest'';
       Whereas, since 2017, the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China has detained an estimated 1,800,000 Turkic 
     Muslims, mostly Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members 
     of other Muslim minority groups, in internment camps without 
     due process;
       Whereas detained Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and 
     members of other Muslim minority groups are tortured, coerced 
     to disavow their religious beliefs and cultural practices, 
     compelled to work in forced labor programs, and, in some 
     cases, raped, subjected to involuntary forced abortion, 
     sterilization, and forced organ harvesting;
       Whereas, as a direct result of the Government of the 
     People's Republic of China's targeted and coercive population 
     control campaign against Uyghurs, the birthrate of the Uyghur 
     population in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region plummeted by 
     24 percent from 2017 to 2018, with birthrates in the Uyghur 
     majority regions of Hotan and Kashgar decreasing by more than 
     60 percent from 2015 to 2018;
       Whereas sterilization rates in Xinjiang grew seven-fold 
     from 2016 to 2018 to more than 60,000 procedures;
       Whereas, in 2018, 80 percent of all net added IUD 
     placements in China (calculated as placements minus removals) 
     were performed in Xinjiang, despite the fact that the region 
     only makes up 1.8 percent of the nation's population;
       Whereas nearly 500,000 Muslim children in Xinjiang have 
     been forcibly separated from their families and subjected to 
     indoctrination and inhumane and degrading treatment in state-
     run boarding schools;
       Whereas, since 2017, the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China has destroyed or damaged approximately 
     16,000 mosques and over 30 percent of Islamic shrines, 
     cemeteries, and pilgrimage routes across the Xinjiang Uyghur 
     Autonomous Region;
       Whereas Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of 
     other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
     Autonomous Region are subjected to constant, unwarranted, and 
     intrusive mass surveillance through the use of new and 
     emerging technologies, including facial recognition software, 
     artificial intelligence, and genetic testing;
       Whereas, between 2017 and 2019, an estimated 80,000 
     Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim 
     minority groups were forcibly transferred out of Xinjiang 
     Uyghur Autonomous Region to work in factories across China, 
     which raises serious concerns of forced labor being used in 
     global supply chains; and
       Whereas the policies of the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China are in contravention of international human 
     rights instruments signed by that government, including--
       (1) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which 
     the People's Republic of China has signed but not yet 
     ratified;
       (2) the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and 
     Cultural Rights, ratified by the People's Republic of China 
     in 2001; and
       (3) the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and 
     Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children 
     (Palermo Protocol), to which the People's Republic of China 
     has been a state party since February 2010: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) declares that the atrocities perpetrated by the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China against Uyghurs, 
     ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority 
     groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region constitute 
     genocide;
       (2) demands that the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China immediately--
       (A) adhere to its commitments under the 1948 United Nations 
     Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
     Genocide;
       (B) halt the genocide it is perpetrating against Uyghurs, 
     ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority 
     groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
       (C) release individuals from internment camps, forced labor 
     programs, and state-run boarding schools;
       (D) reunite families and rebuild or repair mosques; and
       (E) guarantee freedom of religion, including Islam;
       (3) urges the Administration to take all appropriate 
     measures, including working with like-minded states and 
     multilateral coalitions, to compel, induce, or otherwise 
     oblige the Government of the People's Republic of China to 
     immediately take the actions described in subparagraphs (A) 
     through (E) of paragraph (2);
       (4) urges all national governments and international 
     organizations, including the United Nations and its Office of 
     the Secretary-General, to call the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China's atrocity crimes by their rightful name: 
     ``genocide'';
       (5) urges the Permanent Representative of the United States 
     to the United Nations to take steps to coordinate with other 
     members of the United Nations to enact measures to prevent 
     atrocity crimes by the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China, and to punish those responsible for these ongoing 
     crimes, including by the collection and preservation of 
     evidence, imposing sanctions against perpetrators, and if 
     necessary, the establishment and operation of appropriate 
     tribunals;
       (6) urges member states of the United Nations to use their 
     votes to bar the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     from membership of any United Nations councils or other 
     component overseeing human rights until an independent 
     commission established by the United Nations verifies that 
     the People's Republic of China has returned to adhering to 
     its commitments under the 1948 United Nations Convention on 
     the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; and
       (7) encourages the United States Government and United 
     States companies to lead global coalitions ensuring 
     businesses are not enabling, supporting, or profiting off the 
     mass surveillance and forced labor, which is a form of human 
     trafficking, of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members 
     of other Muslim minority groups in China.

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