house Resolution No.41

Reps. Frederick, Fink and Haadsma offered the following resolution:

A resolution to condemn the government of the People's Republic of China for their treatment and arbitrary detention of the Uyghur people.

Whereas, Since 2017, the government of the People's Republic of China has taken significant steps to target and repress the Uyghur people of the Xinjiang province. The Uyghurs, a Muslim minority, are subject to constant surveillance and more than one million have been detained in "re-education" camps; and

Whereas, The Chinese government has used the Uyghur people as a source of indentured labor. More than 80,000 people have been transported across the country to work in factories far from home. Half-a-million Uyghurs have been subject to forced labor in Xinjiang's cotton fields; and

Whereas, While detained in "re-education" camps, Uyghurs are subject to brutal treatment and forced to renounce their religion and pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. Those who have escaped the camps have reported being subject to physical, mental, and sexual torture; and

Whereas, The Chinese government has imposed incredibly cruel and draconian policies to limit the Uyghur population. Women have been forced to undergo involuntary abortions and sterilization. Between 2016 and 2018, sterilization rates in the Xinjiang province grew by 600 percent. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and current Secretary Anthony Blinken have agreed that these practices constitute a genocide; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we condemn the government of the People's Republic of China for their treatment and arbitrary detention of the Uyghur people; and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.