(1) The People’s Republic of China (referred to in this Act as the “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 (referred to in this Act as the “XUAR”) in northwestern China and other areas in which they have habitually residided.

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

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

(4) The PRC—

(A) has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, done at New York December 16, 1966, and is thereby bound by its provisions; and

(B) has also signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, done at New York December 19, 1966.

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

(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) PRC authorities 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) In 2014, following unrest in the XUAR, Chinese authorities launched the “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 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 during 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) In 2017, Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service was the first media organization to report on the PRC’s vast, mass arbitrary-detention program in the XUAR.

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

(14) 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.

(15) Former detainees also confirmed that they were told by guards that the only way to secure release was to demonstrate sufficient political loyalty to the Government of the PRC.

(16) Popular discourse surrounding the ongoing atrocities in the XUAR and advocacy efforts to assist Uyghurs remains muted in most Muslim majority nations around the world.

(17) Former Secretaries of State Antony Blinken and Michael Pompeo and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have all confirmed that the Government of the PRC has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the XUAR.

(18) Government bodies of multiple countries have also declared that atrocities by the Government of the PRC against such populations in the XUAR constitute genocide, including the Parliament of the United Kingdom, of Belgium, of Czechia, of Lithuania, of the Netherlands, and of Canada.

(1) the Government of the PRC should immediately open the XUAR to regular, transparent, and unmanipulated visits by—

(A) members of the press;

(B) international organizations, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;

(C) academic and human rights research institutions; and

(D) foreign delegations, including delegations from the Congress of the United States;

(2) the Government of the PRC should—

(A) 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;

(B) cease all government-sponsored crackdowns, imprisonments, and detentions of people throughout the XUAR aimed at repressing their ethnic, cultural, political, or religious identities; and

(C) cease all government-sponsored transnational repression of Uyghurs, including the detainment, harassment, intimidation, and surveillance of the family members of exiled Uyghurs and Uyghur activists;

(3) it is commendable that countries, including Turkey, Albania, and Germany, have provided shelter and hospitality to Uyghurs and other minority group members in exile from the PRC;

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

(5) the Government of the PRC should immediately grant unconditional releases to all prisoners that have been detained for their ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, for expressing their political or religious beliefs in the XUAR, or for being related to members of the Uyghur diaspora or activist community, 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 Uyghur retired medical doctor 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 Uyghur university student who was wrongfully detained on December 12, 2022, after returning to the XUAR during the winter holiday while on break from studying;

(6) 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

(7) the Department of State should continue to facilitate the unhindered dissemination to the international community of information regarding the human rights, religious freedom, and transnational repression of Uyghurs and members of other minority groups in the XUAR.

(1) to 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) to 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) to support the appointment of a special rapporteur or working group for the XUAR for the purposes of—

(A) monitoring human rights violations and abuses in the XUAR; and

(B) making reports containing information about such violations and abuses available to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the General Assembly of the United Nations, and other United Nations subsidiaries.