The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to toughen Washington’s position against China regarding its treatment of minority Uighurs, calling on President Donald Trump to apply sanctions against senior Chinese officials.
The Uighur Act of 2019 condemns Beijing’s “gross human rights violations” linked to the crackdown in the western region of Xinjiang, where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in re-education camps.
The measure, which passed 407 to 1, is a stronger version of the bill that cleared the Senate in September. The two versions must be reconciled into one bill that gets sent to Trump’s desk.
The vote is sure to draw China’s ire. Beijing has already threatened retaliation against Washington for Trump signing legislation last week supporting Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, just as the world’s top two economies edge towards a trade truce.
The latest House measure condemns the mass arbitrary detainment of Uighurs and calls for closure of the re-education camps where they have been held and abused, according to rights groups and US lawmakers.
What? Toronto’s Foreign-Born Mayor Warns ICE to Stay Out of City – Where It Has No Authority
Watch: ICE Agents Working at Airport Give Whining Leftist the Exact Response He Deserves
Gas thief creeps into learning center, drains van serving students with disabilities
Jeffries declines to break with indicted Democrat after ethics panel’s guilty verdict
Southwest pilot aborts Hollywood Burbank landing because runway ‘wasn’t quite clear’: report
Hegseth Slashes ‘Faith Codes’ in Move to Make Chaplains the Spiritual Backbone of the US Military
Education Department Abandons Headquarters as Agency Heads for Total Extinction
Trans Tide Is Turning: Idaho Criminalizes Trans Use of Incorrect Bathrooms in Private Businesses
JD Vance says he was ‘obsessed’ with UFOs, believes aliens are actually ‘demons’
Notice Anything With NBC’s Headline About Dem Rep Getting Found Guilty By House Ethics Committee?
Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January
Netflix Hikes Prices for Second Time in Just Over a Year
NASA races to build moon base as US challenges China in new space race
Soros-backed group among liberal orgs pumping eye-popping cash into Virginia gerrymandering effort
Scouting America moves to shed ‘woke’ label with major recommitment to military, traditional American values
The bill notably urges Trump to slap sanctions on Chinese officials behind the Uighur policy, including Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief for Xinjiang.
“Today the human dignity and human rights of the Uighur community are under threat from Beijing’s barbarous actions, which are an outrage to the collective conscience of the world,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues shortly before the vote.
Congress “is taking a critical step to counter Beijing’s horrific human rights abuses against Uighurs,” she said.
“America is watching.”
Pelosi lashed out at Chinese authorities for orchestrating a repressive crackdown that includes pervasive mass state surveillance, solitary confinement, beatings, forced sterilization “and other forms of torture.”
Rights groups and witnesses accuse China of forcibly trying to draw Uighurs away from their Islamic customs and integrate them into the majority Han culture.
After initially denying their existence, Beijing now defends the camps, which it calls “vocational education centers,” as a necessary measure to counter religious extremism and terrorism.
What? Toronto’s Foreign-Born Mayor Warns ICE to Stay Out of City – Where It Has No Authority
Watch: ICE Agents Working at Airport Give Whining Leftist the Exact Response He Deserves
Gas thief creeps into learning center, drains van serving students with disabilities
Jeffries declines to break with indicted Democrat after ethics panel’s guilty verdict
Southwest pilot aborts Hollywood Burbank landing because runway ‘wasn’t quite clear’: report
Hegseth Slashes ‘Faith Codes’ in Move to Make Chaplains the Spiritual Backbone of the US Military
Education Department Abandons Headquarters as Agency Heads for Total Extinction
Trans Tide Is Turning: Idaho Criminalizes Trans Use of Incorrect Bathrooms in Private Businesses
JD Vance says he was ‘obsessed’ with UFOs, believes aliens are actually ‘demons’
Notice Anything With NBC’s Headline About Dem Rep Getting Found Guilty By House Ethics Committee?
Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January
Netflix Hikes Prices for Second Time in Just Over a Year
NASA races to build moon base as US challenges China in new space race
Soros-backed group among liberal orgs pumping eye-popping cash into Virginia gerrymandering effort
Scouting America moves to shed ‘woke’ label with major recommitment to military, traditional American values
The House bill would require the State Department to produce a report within one year on the crackdown in Xinjiang.
And it would require the Commerce Department to ban US exports to entities in Xinjiang that are known to be used in the detention or surveillance of Muslim minorities, including facial recognition technology.
Republican Marco Rubio, a sponsor of the legislation in the US Senate, warned that China’s government and Communist Party “is working to systematically wipe out the ethnic and cultural identities” of Uighurs.
He applauded the House passage and said he looked forward to getting a reconciled bill to Trump’s desk.
Story cited here.
