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.
Trump Says He Wants to ‘Take the Oil in Iran,’ Slams ‘Stupid People Back in the US’ for Objecting
Gov Who Might Become President Solely Due to Family Name and Hereditary Wealth Declares, Hilariously, ‘We Do Not Have Kings’
Mike Rowe unleashes on Jimmy Kimmel’s latest ‘tone-deaf’ takedown targeting everyday Americans
Supreme Court declines to hear ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic’s challenge after murder-for-hire conviction
Inmate Tries Handing Over ‘Wad’ of Counterfeit Cash to Judge for Paying Bond
Here Are the IRS Scams You May Face This Tax Season
Iran vows enemies won’t escape without a ‘lesson’ amid warning of ‘major world war’ and more top headlines
Communists, Democrats use #NoKings rally to call for May Day strike: ‘Shut it down’
Manufacturing has struggled since ‘Liberation Day’
Insurgent Virginia Democrat says his party is ‘completely wrong’ on gun rights and gerrymandering
Democratic lawmakers took cash from infamous ‘domestic terrorist’ Bill Ayers
Dem senator warns deportation could let Virginia woman’s illegal immigrant killer ‘escape accountability’
Trump claims donor funded White House ballroom includes hidden build below with security focus
Trump dominates CPAC poll as conservatives rally behind agenda, back Iran action
CNN Host Point Blank Asks Hakeem Jeffries If Shutdown Is Purely A Negotiating Tactic
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.
Trump Says He Wants to ‘Take the Oil in Iran,’ Slams ‘Stupid People Back in the US’ for Objecting
Gov Who Might Become President Solely Due to Family Name and Hereditary Wealth Declares, Hilariously, ‘We Do Not Have Kings’
Mike Rowe unleashes on Jimmy Kimmel’s latest ‘tone-deaf’ takedown targeting everyday Americans
Supreme Court declines to hear ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic’s challenge after murder-for-hire conviction
Inmate Tries Handing Over ‘Wad’ of Counterfeit Cash to Judge for Paying Bond
Here Are the IRS Scams You May Face This Tax Season
Iran vows enemies won’t escape without a ‘lesson’ amid warning of ‘major world war’ and more top headlines
Communists, Democrats use #NoKings rally to call for May Day strike: ‘Shut it down’
Manufacturing has struggled since ‘Liberation Day’
Insurgent Virginia Democrat says his party is ‘completely wrong’ on gun rights and gerrymandering
Democratic lawmakers took cash from infamous ‘domestic terrorist’ Bill Ayers
Dem senator warns deportation could let Virginia woman’s illegal immigrant killer ‘escape accountability’
Trump claims donor funded White House ballroom includes hidden build below with security focus
Trump dominates CPAC poll as conservatives rally behind agenda, back Iran action
CNN Host Point Blank Asks Hakeem Jeffries If Shutdown Is Purely A Negotiating Tactic
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.
