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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Jim Risch (R-ID) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in introducing a bipartisan resolution to designate human rights abuses perpetrated by the People’s Republic of China against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang as genocide. The resolution demands China to be held accountable under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and urges a coordinated international response to bring these abuses to a halt.
The Senators were also joined by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
The full text of the resolution is here.
“As evidence is mounting of the Chinese government and Communist Party’s heinous crimes against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, we must be clear about the nature of these atrocities,” Rubio said. “It is for that reason that I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bipartisan resolution declaring that the egregious human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities constitute genocide. Free nations must urgently come together and press for an end to these crimes and seek accountability and justice.”
“For far too long, the Chinese government has carried out a despicable campaign of genocide against millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims,” Cornyn said. “This resolution recognizes these crimes for what they are and is the first step toward holding China accountable for their monstrous actions.”
“There can be no question that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang,” Menendez said. “Stopping a genocide is consistent with our national security and our values, and it starts by standing up and speaking the truth. I hope that President Trump and Secretary Pompeo will join us in calling this genocide by its name and responding to it with our partners in the international community.”
“The Chinese government’s systematic use of forced sterilization, abortion, and other practices in Xinjiang is truly abhorrent,” Risch said. “These actions targeting Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities constitute genocide, and I am proud to join colleagues on both sides of the aisle in introducing a resolution that defines them as such. The United States and countries around the world must continue to draw attention to what is happening in Xinjiang.”
“Congress cannot – and must not – turn a blind eye to China’s shocking, systematic abuse of its Uyghur population, as well as of ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgz, and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” Cardin said. “These human rights violations demand a forceful U.S. response. That is why I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this resolution, which makes clear that the Senate will not shy away from calling these atrocities what they are: a genocide.”
“China’s assault on Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups—escalating surveillance, imprisonment, torture, and forced ‘re-education camps’—is genocide, pure and simple,” Merkley said. “America can’t stand silent.”
Rubio is Cochair of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations’ Subcommittee that oversees human rights, and is a member of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.