[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1713-S1714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 131--CONDEMNING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S 
     REPUBLIC OF CHINA'S TREATMENT OF THE UYGHURS AND OTHER ETHNIC 
MINORITIES IN THE XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION (XUAR) AND CALLING 
 FOR AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ABUSES AND CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE XUAR

  Mr. COONS (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Markey, Mr. Hagerty, Mr. 
Kaine, and Mr. Romney) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 131

       Whereas the Uyghurs are one of several predominantly Muslim 
     Turkic groups living in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 
     (XUAR) in the northwest of the People's Republic of China 
     (PRC);
       Whereas, following Uyghur demonstrations and unrest in 2009 
     and clashes with government security personnel and other 
     violent incidents in subsequent years, PRC leaders sought to 
     ``stabilize'' the XUAR through large-scale arrests and 
     extreme security measures aimed at combatting alleged 
     terrorism, religious extremism, and ethnic separatism;
       Whereas, in May 2014, the PRC launched its ``Strike Hard 
     Against Violent Extremism'' campaign, which placed further 
     restrictions on and facilitated additional human rights 
     violations against minorities in the XUAR under the pretext 
     of fighting terrorism;
       Whereas, in August 2016, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 
     Politburo member Chen Quanguo, former Tibet Autonomous Region 
     (TAR) Party Secretary, known for overseeing intensifying 
     security operations and human rights abuses in the TAR, was 
     appointed as Party Secretary of the XUAR;
       Whereas, beginning in 2017, XUAR authorities have sought to 
     forcibly ``assimilate'' Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities 
     into Chinese society through a policy of cultural erasure 
     known as ``Sinicization'';
       Whereas, since 2018, credible reporting including from the 
     BBC, France24, and the New York Times has shown that the 
     Government of the PRC has built mass internment camps in the 
     XUAR, which it calls ``vocational training'' centers, and 
     detained Uyghurs and other groups in them and other 
     facilities;
       Whereas, since 2015, XUAR authorities have arbitrarily 
     detained an estimated 1,500,000 Uyghurs--12.5 percent of the 
     XUAR's official Uyghur population of 12,000,000--and a 
     smaller number of other ethnic minorities in the ``vocational 
     training'' centers and other detention and pre-detention 
     facilities;
       Whereas, in 2017, the XUAR accounted for less than two 
     percent of the PRC's total population but 21 percent of all 
     arrests in China;
       Whereas The Atlantic, Radio Free Asia, and other sources 
     have revealed that detainees are forced to renounce many of 
     their Islamic beliefs and customs and repudiate Uyghur 
     culture, language, and identity;
       Whereas investigations by Human Rights Watch and other 
     human rights organizations have documented how detainees are 
     subject to political indoctrination, forced labor, crowded 
     and unsanitary conditions, involuntary biometric data 
     collection, both medical neglect and intrusive medical 
     interventions, food and water deprivation, beatings, sexual 
     violence, and torture;
       Whereas research by the Australian Strategic Policy 
     Institute suggests that, since late 2019, many detainees have 
     been placed in

[[Page S1714]]

     higher security facilities and convicted of formal crimes;
       Whereas Human Rights Watch has reported that the PRC uses 
     data collection programs, including facial recognition 
     technology, to surveil Uyghurs in the XUAR and to identify 
     individuals whom authorities may detain;
       Whereas PRC authorities have placed countless children 
     whose parents are detained or in exile in state-run 
     institutions and boarding schools without the consent of 
     their parents;
       Whereas New York Times reporting revealed that numerous 
     local PRC officials who did not agree with the policies 
     carried out in XUAR have been fired and imprisoned;
       Whereas Associated Press reporting documented widespread 
     and systemic efforts by PRC authorities to force Uyghur women 
     to take contraceptives or to subject them to sterilization or 
     abortion, threatening to detain those who do not comply;
       Whereas PRC authorities prohibit family members and 
     advocates inside and outside China from having regular 
     communications with relatives and friends imprisoned in the 
     XUAR, such as journalist and entrepreneur Ekpar Asat;
       Whereas PRC authorities have imposed pervasive restrictions 
     on the peaceful practice of Islam in the XUAR, to the extent 
     that Human Rights Watch asserts the PRC ``has effectively 
     outlawed the practice of Islam'';
       Whereas individuals who are not detained in camps have been 
     forced to attend political indoctrination sessions, subjected 
     to movement restrictions, mass surveillance systems, 
     involuntary biometric data collection, and other human rights 
     abuses;
       Whereas international media, nongovernmental organizations, 
     scholars, families, and survivors have reported on the 
     systemic nature of many of these abuses;
       Whereas, on June 26, 2020, a group of 50 independent United 
     Nations experts jointly expressed alarm over China's 
     deteriorating human rights record, including its repression 
     in Xinjiang, and called on the international community ``to 
     act collectively and decisively to ensure China respects 
     human rights and abides by its international obligations'';
       Whereas, on October 6, 2020, 39 United Nations member 
     countries issued a public statement condemning human rights 
     violations by PRC authorities and calling on the PRC to allow 
     the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 
     unfettered access to Xinjiang;
       Whereas the United States Congress passed the Uyghur Human 
     Rights Policy Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-145);
       Whereas the United States Congress passed the Global 
     Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of 
     title XII of Public Law 114-328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note), which 
     has been used to sanction PRC officials and entities for 
     their activities in the XUAR;
       Whereas the United States Government has implemented 
     additional targeted restrictions on trade with Xinjiang and 
     imposed visa and economic sanctions on PRC officials and 
     entities for their activities in the XUAR;
       Whereas the United States Government has documented human 
     rights abuses and violations of individual freedoms in the 
     XUAR, including in the 2019 Department of State Report on 
     International Religious Freedom;
       Whereas, on August 25, 2020, the Biden for President 
     campaign stated, ``The unspeakable oppression that Uighurs 
     and other ethnic minorities have suffered at the hands of 
     China's authoritarian government is genocide and Joe Biden 
     stands against it in the strongest terms.'';
       Whereas, on January 19, 2021, former Secretary of State 
     Michael Pompeo ``determined that the PRC, under the direction 
     and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the 
     predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious 
     minority groups in Xinjiang'';
       Whereas, on January 19, 2021, during his confirmation 
     hearing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified that 
     ``forcing men, women, and children into concentration camps, 
     trying to in effect reeducate them to be adherents to the 
     Chinese Communist Party - all of that speaks to an effort to 
     commit genocide'';
       Whereas, on January 19, 2021, Secretary of the Treasury 
     Janet L. Yellen, during her confirmation hearing, publicly 
     stated that China is guilty of ``horrendous human rights 
     abuses'';
       Whereas, on January 27, 2021, in response to a question 
     from the press regarding the Uyghurs, Secretary Blinken 
     stated that his ``judgement remains that genocide was 
     committed against the Uyghurs''; and
       Whereas, on March 10, 2021, in response to a question on 
     Xinjiang during his testimony before the Committee on Foreign 
     Affairs of the House of Representatives, Secretary Blinken 
     reiterated, ``We've been clear, and I've been clear, that I 
     see it as genocide, other egregious abuses of human rights, 
     and we'll continue to make that clear.'': Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) condemns the atrocities committed by the CCP against 
     Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Turkic groups in 
     Xinjiang, including forced labor, sexual violence, the 
     internment of over 1,000,000 individuals, and other horrific 
     abuses;
       (2) urges the President, the Secretary of State, and the 
     United States Ambassador to the United Nations to speak 
     publicly about the ongoing human rights abuses in the XUAR, 
     including in formal speeches at the United Nations and other 
     international fora;
       (3) urges the President, the Secretary of State, and the 
     United States Ambassador to the United Nations to appeal to 
     the United Nations Secretary-General to take a more proactive 
     and public stance on the situation in the XUAR, including by 
     supporting calls for an investigation and accountability for 
     individuals and entities involved in abuses against the 
     people of the XUAR;
       (4) supports continued targeted sanctions and the use of 
     all diplomatic tools available to hold those responsible for 
     the atrocities in Xinjiang to account;
       (5) urges United States agencies engaged with China on 
     trade, climate, defense, or other bilateral issues to include 
     human rights abuses in the XUAR as a consideration in 
     developing United States policy;
       (6) supports Radio Free Asia Uyghur, the only Uyghur-
     language news service in the world independent of Chinese 
     government influence; and
       (7) recognizes the repeated requests from the United 
     Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for unfettered 
     access to the XUAR and the PRC's refusal to comply, and 
     therefore--
       (A) calls on PRC authorities to allow unfettered access by 
     the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human 
     Rights to the XUAR;
       (B) urges collaborative action between the United States 
     Government and international partners to pressure PRC 
     authorities to allow unfettered access to the XUAR;
       (C) urges the President, the Secretary of State, and the 
     United States Ambassador to the United Nations to 
     simultaneously outline a strategy to investigate the human 
     rights abuses and crimes that have taken place in the XUAR, 
     collect evidence, and transfer the evidence to a competent 
     court; and
       (D) urges United States partners and allies to undertake 
     similar strategies in an effort to build an international 
     investigation outside of the PRC if PRC authorities do not 
     comply with a United Nations investigation in the XUAR.

                          ____________________