The US Congress and the Uyghurs

After months and months of public outcry against China’s policies in the western region of Xinjiang, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill in December demanding a tougher American response and concrete measures against Beijing. After the nearly unanimous vote in the House (407-1), the bill now moves back to the Senate, where the original version passed by unanimous consent in September 2019. This latest legislative move also follows the passage and signing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in late November in response to violence amid widespread protests and concerns over Beijing encroaching on the city’s unique political system.

As many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of other largely Muslim ethnic groups have been detained in dozens of camps that Chinese authorities claim were developed for “vocational training.” Those detained have not been formally charged and have no legal outlets to challenge their treatment. Most have been targeted for traveling to countries China deems sensitive (e.g. Afghanistan and Turkey), attending mosque services, or sending verses from the Quran via text message. Once in detention, they are forced to renounce their religion, pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, sing red patriotic songs, learn Mandarin, and undergo political indoctrination. Reports have also detailed harrowing accounts of abuses in Xinjiang against the majority-Muslim population, including camera and audio monitoring, torture, sleep and food deprivation, and sexual abuse. Since November, unprecedented leaks of hundreds of pages of documents – known as the China Cables – have revealed the orchestration and direction of Xinjiang policy from central authorities.

The U.S. Uyghur Human Rights Act legislation was first introduced in January 2019 in the Senate, sponsored by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and 17 other bipartisan cosponsors. While a draft of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 passed in the Senate in September, the House version contains even more pointed language. After the House’s approval, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, commended his colleagues, saying, “Congress is taking the necessary and long overdue steps to hold accountable officials in the Chinese government and Communist Party responsible for gross violations of human rights and possible crimes against humanity. Uyghurs deserve justice for the barbaric and abhorrent acts they have been forced to endure.” Rubio also issued a stern rebuke to Beijing: “The Chinese Government and Communist Party is working to systematically wipe out the ethnic and cultural identities of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.”

The bill’s provisions call on the Department of State to impose Global Magnitsky sanctions, including against Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Party Secretary Chen Quanguo. It would also impose controls on goods or services from individuals who facilitated or assisted in Xinjiang’s mass detentions over the last three years, as well as restrictions on the export of technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence and biometric technology) being used in the surveillance and camps. Additionally, various U.S. agencies would be directed to report on China’s treatment of Uyghurs, including the extent of surveillance and detentions, security threats caused by Beijing’s crackdown, the frequency of forcible returns of Turkic Muslims from other countries to China, and efforts made to protect Uyghurs and Chinese nationals in the United States.

Donald Trump’s focus since entering office has been geared toward taking a strong stand against China on trade, not on human rights. The president has at times demonstrated favor in using human rights issues as a bargaining lever in the broader U.S.-China relationship, refraining from openly condemning Beijing in hopes of obtaining a more advantageous deal on trade. Yet in the second half of 2019, the Trump administration appears to have become more responsive to developments in Xinjiang as more and more accounts emerged. In July, Trump met with a group of representatives facing religious persecution, including a Uyghur woman and three other individuals from China. Elnigar Iltebir, a U.S.-based Uyghur politician and activist, was appointed director for China at the National Security Council in August. By October, the Trump administration imposed visa restrictions against officials and sanctions against Chinese companies for their involvement in repression against Uyghurs.

Other officials in the executive branch have also been vocal in condemning China’s detention centers and maltreatment, notably Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, the latter of whom has delivered two blustery speeches on China and its effect on the international system.

To some degree, Trump’s general antipathy for multilateralism and verbal commitment to an “America First” foreign policy have opened the door for Congress to reassert the legislative branch’s role in the country’s external relations. While this is not the case for facets of foreign policy where partisan divides are entrenched, China offers an U.S. legislators an opportunity. In recent years, the tone in Washington on China has markedly shifted toward the negative. In a highly polarized political moment in the United States, debate about how to manage relations with an increasingly assertive China has galvanized rare consensus. 

Until passage and the actual implementation of the legislation’s provisions, the resounding condemnation of “gross human rights violations” remains just a reproach. Still, the Uyghur Act, as well as the Hong Kong legislation, demonstrate a promise of virtual unanimous commitment by the legislative branch of the U.S. government to craft a plan for challenging China on human rights, an issue that once featured far more prominently under previous U.S. administrations.