Washington D.C., May 28, 2020 / 08:00 am
The House on Wednesday evening passed legislation to respond to the mass detention and other human rights violations against Uyghurs in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang.
"We cannot be silent," said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) on Wednesday before the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act passed the House. "Xi Jinping is smashing and obliterating an entire people. He is presiding over genocide." Smith authored the House version of the legislation which had 136 cosponsors.
The bill (S. 3744) was passed by the Senate on May 14, where it was sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). It requires the administration to report on the scope and details of abuses committed against Uyghurs by the Chinese authorities, and to sanction the officials complicit in the abuses through actions such as visa denial and blocking an individual's financial transactions.
"Congress is sending a strong message of support to Uyghur Muslims worldwide that the United States stands with you and will not sit idly by as the Chinese government and Communist Party commit egregious human rights abuses and crimes against humanity," Sen. Rubio, the co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), stated.