A Price to Pay for Human Rights Violations in China

A Price to Pay for Human Rights Violations in China

Since 2017, the People’s Republic of China has ramped up its persecution of Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. It is no accident that this date follows on the heels of the 2016 installation of Politburo member Chen Quanguo as Communist Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. There he also servesas the head of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, or XPCC, an economic and paramilitary organization in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region which is under direct control of China’s central government and fulfills numerous governmental functions in Xinjiang.

Soon after his arrival in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Chen Quanguo, began implementing a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program there, targeting Uighurs and members of other religious and ethnic minorities. At this time, hundreds of thousands of Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic Turkic Muslims were arrested for infractions such as having a beard or refusing to drink alcohol, and are being held in internment camps.

The United States and the Trump Administration are committed to defending the human rights of oppressed people everywhere. For their connection to the egregious abuses they have heaped on the people of Xinjiang, the both the United States Departments of Treasury and State have sanctioned Chen Quanguo; director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau Wang Mingshan; Zhu Hailun, a senior Party member in Xinjiang; former security official Huo Liujun; former XPCC Party Secretary Sun Jinlong; and XPCC Deputy Secretary Peng Jiarui.

Treasury also imposed sanctions on the PSB and XPCC themselves. Treasury’s sanctions, pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act that forbids sanctioned individuals from entering the United States. These sanctions also freeze their U.S.-based assets.

The United States has taken the strongest actions of any nation in the world to protect the human rights of all people in China.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities rank as the stain of the century,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a written statement. “The Trump Administration has led the world’s effort to impose tangible costs on the PRC’s continuous campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, intrusive surveillance, forced labor, forced population control, involuntary collection of biometric data, and genetic analyses targeted at these groups."

“Today, we are continuing that record of principled action.”