The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday (April 21) passed without dissent two resolutions condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide against the Uighur and other ethnic minorities, with unanimous bipartisan support for the bills.
The committee voted unanimously on one resolution, H.R. 1155, the “Forced Uighur Labor Prevention Act,” which would ensure that forced labor products produced in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region cannot enter the U.S. market, and on the other, H. Res. 317, “Condemning the Ongoing Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the People’s Republic of China Against Members of the Uighur and Other Religious and Ethnic Minorities. crimes against humanity”.
After passing the House Foreign Affairs Committee, both of these Xinjiang-related human rights bills will next go to the full House of Representatives for a pending vote.
In September 2020, the House of Representatives of the 116th Congress had passed the Forced Uighur Labor Prevention Act by an overwhelming majority of 406 to 3, but the bill did not advance in the Senate until the Congress’ term expired.
With the start of a new Congress, Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey jointly reintroduced an updated version of the bill in February of this year. Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon had already introduced a new Senate version of the bill in January.
At Wednesday’s committee markup, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said, “Despite attempts by the Chinese Communist authorities to cover up their atrocities, it is becoming increasingly clear that the ongoing abuses against the Uighurs, the people of Xinjiang, constitute the Geneva Convention’s definition of genocide. “
The Prevention of Forced Uighur Labor Act would ban the importation of goods and commodities from Xinjiang and sanction officials who perform forced labor on China’s ethnic minorities, Meeks said, while also calling on the White House to develop a diplomatic strategy to address forced labor in the Xinjiang region.
The Act contains a “rebuttable presumption” that all goods produced in the XUAR are presumed to be manufactured by forced labor unless “clear and convincing” evidence is presented to rebut the presumption. Unless “clear and convincing” evidence is presented to rebut this presumption, all goods are prohibited from entering the United States.
The bill also authorizes the President to impose sanctions on anyone who imposes forced labor on the Uighur and other Muslim populations in Xinjiang and requires listed U.S. companies to disclose financial information about their contacts with the Chinese companies and entities.
The committee’s ranking Republican member, Michael McCaul of Texas, showed a photo of Uighurs blindfolded and shackled during the deliberative session, saying, “This is exactly what is really happening in China right now.”
“We have a moral obligation at all times to acknowledge that these are crimes of fact – genocide. The Chinese Communist Party is watching closely what we’re doing here today, and in fact, the world is watching,” McCaul said, adding that both current Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, have taken the position that the crimes being committed by the Chinese Communist Party against the Uighurs in Xinjiang in China is genocide.
“It’s time for the U.S. Congress to take further action and speak out against the genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by the Chinese Communist Party,” McCaul said.
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