Signed by President Donald Trump

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes sanctions on foreign individuals responsible for human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region and requires certain reports on the topic.

Highlights:

• Requires the President to submit a report to appropriate Congressional committees, no later than 180 days after this bill’s date of enactment and no less frequently than annually thereafter, that identifies each foreign person, including any Chinese government official, that they determine is responsible for any of the following actions with respect to Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, members of other Muslim minority groups, and other people of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Sec. 6):

• Torture; 

• Cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; 

• Prolonged detention without charge or trial; 

• Causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons; and

• Other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons.

• Requires the President to impose sanctions upon foreign persons described in the required report (Sec. 6).

• Requires the President to exercise all of the powers granted to their office under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests in property of a foreign person identified in the required report if such property and interests in property (Sec. 6):

• Are in the US;

• Come within the US; or

• Come within the possession or control of a US person.

• Specifies that a foreign individual identified in the required report is (Sec. 6):

• Inadmissible to the US; 

• Ineligible to receive a visa or other documentation to enter the US; and

• Otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into the US or to receive any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

• Amends the statement of US policy toward China by adding that the policy should be explicitly linked to the situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, specifically as to whether (Sec. 5):

• The internment of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, members of other Muslim minority groups in internment camps has ended; 

• All political prisoners have been released; 

• The use of mass surveillance and predictive policing to discriminate against and violate the human rights of members of specific ethnic groups has ceased and is not evident in other parts of China; and

• The Chinese government has ended severe restrictions of religious and cultural practice in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

• Expresses that it is the sense of Congress that (Sec. 4):

• The President should:

• Condemn abuses against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, members of other Muslim minority groups, and other people by authorities of China; and

• Call on such authorities to immediately:

• Close the internment camps; 

• Lift all restrictions on, and ensure respect for, human rights; and

• Allow people inside China to reestablish contact with their families, friends, and associates outside of China; 

• The Secretary of State should consider strategically employing sanctions and other tools under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, including measures resulting from the designation of China as a country of particular concern for religious freedom that directly addresses particularly severe violations of religious freedom; 

• The Secretary of State should:

• Work with United States allies and partners and through multilateral institutions to condemn the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; and 

• Coordinate closely with the international community on targeted sanctions and visa restrictions; 

• The journalists of the Uyghur language service of Radio Free Asia should be commended for their reporting on the human rights violations and political situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region despite efforts by the Chinese government to silence or intimidate their reporting through the detention of family members and relatives in China; 

• The US should expand the availability of and capacity for Uyghur language programming on Radio Free Asia in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation and appropriate US law enforcement agencies should take steps to hold accountable officials from China or individuals acting on their behalf who harass, threaten, or intimidate people within the US; and

• US companies and individuals selling goods or services or otherwise operating in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region should take steps, including in any public or financial filings, to ensure that:

• Their commercial activities are not contributing to human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or elsewhere in China; and

• Their supply chains are not compromised by forced labor.

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text