SECTION 1. Short title.

SEC. 2. Findings.

(1) The People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to repress the distinct Islamic, Turkic identity of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China and other areas of their habitual residence.

(2) Uyghurs, and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities historically making up the majority of the XUAR population, have maintained throughout their history a distinct religious and cultural identity.

(3) Human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, and respect for the Uyghurs’ unique Muslim identity are legitimate interests of the international community.

(4) The People’s Republic of China has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and has also signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

(5) An official campaign to encourage Han Chinese migration into the XUAR has placed immense pressure on those who seek to preserve the ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic traditions of the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups.

(6) PRC authorities have supported an influx of Han Chinese economic immigrants into the XUAR, implemented discrimination against Uyghurs and other minorities in hiring practices, and provided unequal access to healthcare services.

(7) The authorities of the People’s Republic of China have manipulated the strategic objectives of the international war on terror to mask their increasing cultural and religious oppression of the Muslim population residing in the XUAR.

(8) Following unrest in the region, in 2014, Chinese authorities launched their “Strike Hard against Violent Extremism” campaign, in which dubious allegations of widespread extremist activity were used as justification for gross human rights violations committed against Uyghurs and members of other minority communities in the XUAR.

(9) PRC authorities have made use of the legal system as a tool of repression, including for the imposition of arbitrary detentions and for torture against members of the Uyghur community and other minority populations.

(10) Uyghurs and Kazakhs who have secured citizenship or permanent residency outside of the PRC have attested to repeated threats, harassment, and surveillance by PRC officials.

(11) Reporting from international news organizations has found that over the past decade, family members of Uyghurs and other minority groups living outside of the PRC have gone missing or been detained to force Uyghur expatriates to return to the PRC or silence their dissent.

(12) Credible evidence from human rights organizations, think tanks, and journalists confirms that more than 1,000,000 Uyghurs and members of other Muslim ethnic minority groups have been imprisoned in “political reeducation” centers.

(13) Independent accounts from former detainees of “political reeducation” centers describe inhumane conditions and treatment including forced political indoctrination, torture, beatings, rape, forced sterilization, and food deprivation.

(14) Former detainees of PRC so-called “political reeducation” centers also confirmed that they were told by guards the only way to secure release was to demonstrate sufficient political loyalty to the PRC Government and the Chinese Communist Party.

(15) Popular discourse surrounding the ongoing atrocities in the XUAR and advocacy efforts to assist Uyghurs remains muted in much of the world, including in most Muslim majority nations.

(16) Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have stated that the PRC government has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the XUAR.

(17) Government bodies of multiple nations have also declared that PRC government atrocities against such populations in the XUAR constitute genocide, including the parliaments of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Czechia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Canada.

SEC. 3. Sense of Congress.

(1) the Government of the People’s Republic of China should immediately open the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to regular, transparent, and unmanipulated visits by members of the press, international organizations including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, academic and human rights research institutions, as well as foreign delegations including from the United States Congress;

(2) Government of the People’s Republic of China should recognize, and take tangible steps to protect and preserve, the distinct ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic identity of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the XUAR;

(3) the Government of the People’s Republic of China should cease all government-sponsored crackdowns, imprisonments, and detentions of people throughout the XUAR aimed at repressing their ethnic, cultural, political, or religious identities;

(4) it is commendable for countries to provide shelter and hospitality to Uyghurs and other minority group members in exile, as Turkey, Albania, and Germany have done;

(5) urges all countries, especially fellow democracies and those with sizeable Muslim populations, to condemn and address the plight of Uyghurs and other minority communities in the XUAR;

(6) the Government of the PRC should immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners detained for their ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, or for expressing their political or religious beliefs in the XUAR, including—

(A) Ekper Asat, who participated in the Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program in 2016, was incarcerated after returning to the XUAR, and is now serving a 15 year prison sentence on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination”;

(B) Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a retired medical doctor and Uyghur, who was wrongfully detained in the XUAR on September 11, 2018, and unjustly sentenced to 20 years in prison in retaliation for her sister’s advocacy for Uyghur human rights issues; and

(C) Kamile Wayit, a university student and Uyghur, who was wrongfully detained on December 12, 2022, after returning to the XUAR while on break from studying during the winter holiday;

(7) the Government of the PRC should facilitate access for international humanitarian organizations, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to the “political reeducation” centers in the XUAR to ensure prisoners are not being mistreated and are receiving necessary medical care; and

(8) the United States Agency for Global Media should continue to facilitate the unhindered dissemination of information to the international community on issues regarding the human rights and religious freedom of Uyghurs and members of other minority groups in the XUAR.

SEC. 4. United States special coordinator for Uyghur issues.

SEC. 5. Funding for human rights advocates to conduct public diplomacy in the islamic world on the Uyghur situation.

SEC. 6. Access to detention facilities and prisons and the release of prisoners.

SEC. 7. Requirement for Uyghur language training.

SEC. 8. Uyghur considerations at the United Nations.

(1) oppose any efforts to prevent consideration of the gross violation of internationally recognized human rights in the XUAR in any body of the United Nations;

(2) oppose any efforts to prevent the participation of any Uyghur human rights advocates in nongovernmental fora hosted by or otherwise organized under the auspices of any body of the United Nations; and

(3) support the appointment of a special rapporteur or working group for the XUAR for the purposes of monitoring human rights violations and abuses in the XUAR, and for making reports available to the High Commissioner for Refugees, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Commission, the General Assembly, and other United Nations bodies.

SEC. 9. No additional funds authorized.