The US Senate has approved a bill to press China on its treatment of Uighurs, requiring the US government to closely monitor the mass incarceration of the community and consider punishment of those responsible.
The Senate unanimously approved the so-called Uighur Human Rights Policy Act on Wednesday. It still needs passage by the US House of Representatives, which is highly likely, as the bill has wide bipartisan support.
The bill would require US intelligence to produce a report within six months on the crackdown in Xinjiang, the western region where as many as 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in re-education camps.
It would also establish a US Department of State special coordinator on Xinjiang and ask the FBI to assess reports of harassment by China of US citizens and residents of Uighur heritage.
The bill also asks US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider sanctions on Chinese officials behind the policy, notably Chen Quanguo (陳全國), the Chinese Communist Party chief for Xinjiang.
“It’s long overdue for the United States to hold the Chinese government and Communist Party officials accountable for the systemic and egregious human rights abuses and probable crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” said US Senator Marco Rubio, who introduced the bill.
The Uighur Human Rights Project, a Washington-based rights group, hailed the bill as a key step in building international pressure.
“This is the first legislation passed by any nation responding to the Uighur human rights crisis and sends a powerful message to Beijing,” the group said in a statement.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized China, with Pompeo recently calling Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs one of the “worst stains on the world.”
However, some activists say that US actions have gone little beyond statements at a time when Trump is embroiled in multiple feuds with China, most notably on trade.
US Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who introduced the bill with Rubio, said the measure showed that the US was not turning a blind eye even though the Trump administration “has not seen fit to make the tragic situation in Xinjiang a priority.”
Rights groups and witnesses accuse China of forcibly trying to draw Uighurs away from their Islamic customs and integrate them into the majority Han culture.
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