A Conference on Uyghur crisis and professor Ilham Tohti
Post Tagged with: "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020"
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Trump Signs Uyghur Rights Act Into Law, Authorizing Sanctions For Abuses in Xinjiang
Radio Free Asia 2020-06-17 U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 into law on Wednesday, authorizing the use of sanctions against Chinese officials deemed complicit in the persecution of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The bill, which passed nearly unanimously through both houses of Congress last month, highlights arbitrary incarceration, forced labor, and other abuses in the XUAR—home to internment camps holding as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslims. In addition to condemning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the three-year-old internment camp program, the new law requires regular monitoring of the situation in the region by U.S. government bodies for the application of sanctions. It also addresses Chinese government harassment of Uyghurs living inside the United States. “The Act holds accountable perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labor, and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uyghurs and other minorities in China,” Trump said in a statement released by the Office of the White House Press Secretary after the signing. Trump notes in the statement that the act “purports to limit my discretion to terminate inadmissibility sanctions,” which he said could be inconsistent with his constitutional authorities to receive foreign officials as diplomatic representatives, and therefore would consider the relevant section “advisory and non-binding.” He said that his administration would make efforts to notify relevant congressional committees before removing inadmissibility sanctions against any officials targeted by the new law. The signing comes amid tense relations between the U.S. and China, with the Trump administration taking multiple jabs at Beijing in recent months for its lack of transparency in handling the coronavirus pandemic, trade policy, and expansive territorial claims. The president has also said he would take […]