Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act - S.178

The administration would be required to sanction Chinese government officials responsible for the repression of Turkic Muslims, predominantly Uighurs, under the House amendment to S. 178.

The measure also would require export licenses for items that allow China’s government to commit human rights violations.

“It’s long overdue for the United States to hold Chinese government and Communist Party Officials accountable for the systemic and egregious human rights abuses and probable crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the bill’s sponsor, in a Sept. 11 news release.

The version of the bill he introduced, and the Senate passed, would have required several reports, while the House version includes sanctions and export controls language.

Chinese Policy & U.S. Response

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping established a national religious policy known as “Sinicization,” under which China’s religious and ethnic minorities are forced to conform to its culture and Communist Party policies.

Following implementation of new counterterrorism laws, Xinjiang officials imposed restrictive security measures, which include high-tech surveillance and collection of biometric data, such as DNA samples, blood types, and fingerprints of Uighurs, for identification purposes.

Government authorities in the Xinjiang region of China have detained about 1.5 million Turkic Muslims, primarily ethnic Uighurs and Kazakhs, in “reeducation camps,” according to a Congressional Research Service report. Chinese officials have described the camps as “vocational educational institutions” that also provide “deextremization” programming.

In October, the Commerce Department placed 28 Chinese entities, including artificial intelligence and surveillance companies, on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List for their role in human rights violations in Xinjiang. The entities are barred from receiving specified U.S. goods, services, or technology without an export license.

The State Department also imposed visa sanctions on Chinese government and Communist Party officials responsible for abuses against Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.

Sanctions

Within 120 days of the bill’s enactment, the president would have to provide Congress with a list of senior Chinese government officials determined to have knowingly engaged in serious human rights abuses against Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China.

The list would include Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo and officials responsible for mass incarceration or reeducation efforts targeting Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.

Visa and financial sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act (Public Law 114-328) would be imposed on identified individuals.

The president could waive sanctions with advance notice to Congress that it’s in U.S. national interests, and there would be exceptions for activities necessary to support U.S. international obligations or for the importation of goods.

Export Controls

Within 120 days of the measure’s enactment and as necessary, the president would have to identify items that provide a “critical capability” to China’s government or its agents to suppress privacy or other human rights through:

• Surveillance and restriction of communications and movement.
• Identification of individuals through biometric indicators.
• Detention of and forced labor by individuals who are exercising basic human rights.

Identified items would be separately added to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Commerce Control List, which requires export licenses for “dual-use” items that have civilian applications and uses related to the military, law enforcement, terrorism, or weapons of mass destruction.

The president would need to consult with advisory committees of the Commerce Department to ensure the designated items don’t unnecessarily restrict U.S.-China trade.

A designated item would require a license or authorization for its export, reexport, or in-country transfer to or within China. Licenses would be subject to a review policy of “presumption of denial,” which indicates that an application would be denied in most cases.

The measure would state that it’s U.S. policy to reconcile U.S. and relevant international export controls related to the designated items.

Policy Statements

The bill would state that U.S. policy toward China should be expressly linked to China’s actions in Xinjiang and whether:

• The mass internment of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in reeducation camps has ended.
• All political prisoners in the region have been released.
• The use of high-tech mass surveillance of specific ethnic groups is occurring in other parts of China.

The measure would express the sense of Congress that the:

• President should condemn abuses against Turkic Muslims and call on Chinese authorities to immediately close the “reeducation” camps and lift all restrictions on human rights.
• State Department should consider designating China as a “country of particular concern for religious freedom” and work with U.S. allies and partners on targeted sanctions and visa restrictions.
• Radio Free Asia’s Uighur journalists should be commended for their reporting on the human rights situation in Xinjiang despite China’s intimidation efforts, and that the U.S. should expand the availability of Uighur language programming in the region.

State Dept. Report

The State Department would have to submit a report to Congress on human rights abuses in Xinjiang that includes:

• An assessment of the number of detainees and conditions in reeducation and forced labor camps.
• A description of the methods used by the Chinese government to reeducate Uighur detainees.
• A list of foreign companies and industries benefiting from forced labor in Xinjiang.
• A description of U.S. and foreign diplomatic efforts to address gross human rights violations and to protect asylum seekers from the region, as well as the level of access for foreign diplomats, journalists, and nongovernmental organizations.

Budget Effects

Implementing the bill would cost less than $500,000 from fiscal 2020 through 2024, subject to appropriation, according to a Nov. 26 cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Costs would include updating the Commerce Control List, processing any new export licenses, and issuing reports.

The measure’s sanctions would affect very few additional people, according to CBO, and would therefore have negligible effects on mandatory spending and revenue.

The bill would impose a private-sector mandate on businesses that export designated items to China to obtain a license from the Bureau of Industry and Security. However, since the export license is free, there would be no cost to comply with that requirement.

It could create a private-sector mandate if it resulted in a U.S. individual being barred from conducting business with someone sanctioned under the measure. According to CBO, the number of affected entities would be small and income losses would be minimal, resulting in a total cost less than the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, which is $164 million in 2019 and adjusted annually for inflation.

The measure wouldn’t impose any intergovernmental mandates.

Previous Action

The Senate passed S. 178, then called the “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act,” by unanimous consent on Sept. 11.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved an amended version, called the “Uighur Intervention and Global Humanitarian Unified Response Act” or “UIGHUR Act,” by voice vote on Oct. 30.

Rubio introduced S. 178 on Jan. 17, the same day that Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) introduced a similar bill (H.R. 649). The House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Judiciary committees haven’t considered the bill, which had 99 Democrats and 29 Republicans as cosponsors as of Nov. 29.