[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3306 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3306
To address state-sanctioned violence against women in the People's
Republic of China, including rape and torture in detention and forced
sterilizations, forced abortions, and other coercive birth restriction
policies, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 18, 2021
Mrs. Hartzler (for herself and Mr. Suozzi) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in
addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To address state-sanctioned violence against women in the People's
Republic of China, including rape and torture in detention and forced
sterilizations, forced abortions, and other coercive birth restriction
policies, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Uyghur Stop Oppressive
Sterilizations Act'' or the ``Uyghur SOS Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Eyewitness accounts provide credible documentation of
widespread forced sterilization and sexual violence against
Uyghur and Kazakh women in the People's Republic of China,
including investigations and independent interviews by global
media outlets.
(2) Women who survived internment camps report that they
were forced to undergo multiple injections of unknown medicines
that caused temporary or permanent loss of menstrual cycles.
(3) Chinese Government documents demonstrate rapid declines
in population in two predominately Uyghur prefectures of the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region between 2015 and 2018, and an
unprecedented near-zero birth rate target for 2020 in one
district. Government documents mandate that birth control
violations are punishable by extrajudicial internment in
``training'' camps.
(4) Chinese Government documents from 2019 reveal plans for
a campaign of mass female sterilization in rural Uyghur
populated regions of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, to
be continued in 2020 with increased funding. Publicly available
budgets indicate that this project had sufficient funding to
perform hundreds of thousands of tubal ligation sterilization
procedures in 2019 and 2020.
(5) In 2019, the Government of the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region planned to subject at least 80 percent of
women of childbearing age in the four southern, rural, minority
prefectures to intrusive birth-prevention surgeries.
(6) A leaked report written by Nankai University
researchers for the Chinese Government confirms the intent of
intention of state-organized forced labor transfers as having
the ultimate purpose of assimilating Uyghurs, ``breaking up''
their society, and altering demographic trends.
(7) The policy of state-sponsored forced population-
transfer program, which separates married couples and forcibly
places unmarried individuals into controlled environments where
they cannot marry or form a family, is a violation of the
fundamental right ``to marry and to found a family,'' as
codified by Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948).
(8) Under the ``becoming family'' homestay program
initiated by the government of the People's Republic of China
in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, government workers
and other Communist Party members are assigned to live with
ethnic minority families in their homes to conduct surveillance
and compile information on family members, in arrangements
which leave these families vulnerable to sexual violence and
other types of abuse.
(9) On January 7, 2021, an official social media account
for the Government of China said that a ``Study shows that in
the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women
in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and
reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-
making machines [and] . . . . They are more confident and
independent.''.
(10) Uyghur and Kazakh women who have given testimony to
reporters about sexual violence and forced sterilizations in
mass internment camps have been intimidated and their families
threatened by security officials from the People's Republic of
China.
(11) Article Two of the Genocide Convention of 1948, which
China has signed and ratified, states that ``genocide means any
of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group, as such:
``(A) Killing members of the group;
``(B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of the group;
``(C) Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part;
``(D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group;
``(E) Forcibly transferring children of the group
to another group.''.
(12) On January 19, 2021, the Secretary of State released a
determination about atrocities in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region that stated that the ``ongoing'' crimes
against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and
other members of ethnic and religious minority groups include
forced sterilization, and called upon the PRC ``immediately to
release all arbitrarily detained persons and abolish its system
of internment, detention camps, house arrest and forced labor;
cease coercive population control measures, including forced
sterilizations, forced abortion, forced birth control, and the
removal of children from their families; and end all torture
and abuse in places of detention . . . .''
(13) That same determination concluded that, after careful
examination of the facts, the Government of China was
committing ``genocide'' against Uyghur, Kazakh, and other
ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region.
(14) Secretary of State Tony Blinken affirmed that the
United States Government recognizes the atrocities faced by
Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as ongoing genocide and
crimes against humanity and said the United States will hold
the Government of China responsible for the ``atrocities''
committed in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States--
(1) to regard the prevention of genocide and other atrocity
crimes as a national interest particularly when those actions
target Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz and other predominately
Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region through mass arbitrary detentions, forced labor, forced
sterilizations, forced abortions and other coercive birth
restrictions policies, sexual violence and other torture in
detention, and forced transfer of children to orphanages and
boarding schools;
(2) to condemn genocide and work diplomatically to end
genocide and other atrocity crimes, including by calling on
foreign governments, through both bilateral discussions and in
multilateral organizations, to denounce and take actions to end
the atrocity crimes perpetuated in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region;
(3) to raise the issue of state-sanctioned violence against
women, including rape, torture, and coercively enforced
population control policies in the People's Republic of China,
in all multilateral organizations where the United States and
the People's Republic of China are members, including at the
United Nations Security Council;
(4) to consider state-sanctioned violence against women,
including forced sterilizations and forced abortions and the
systematic use of rape and torture in mass internment camps in
the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as a gross violation of
internationally-recognized human rights; and
(5) to use all the existing United States authorities,
including visa and financial sanctions, to hold accountable
individuals and entities responsible for genocide and other
atrocity crimes in the People's Republic of China, section 6 of
the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (Public Law No: 116-145) and
including section 1263 of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017; 22 U.S.C. 2656
note).
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING ATROCITY CRIMES IN THE XINJIANG
UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the atrocities perpetrated by the Government of the
People's Republic of China against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz,
and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are horrific and ongoing and
constitute genocide and crimes against humanity;
(2) all governments, including the United States, and
international organizations, such as the United Nations and the
Office of the Secretary-General, should call the atrocities
perpetuated by the Government of the People's Republic of
China, including the mass arbitrary detention of ethnic
minorities; forced sterilizations and forced abortions and
other sexual violence; and forced labor, as genocide and crimes
against humanity;
(3) the United States, in coordination with allies and
partners, should strongly condemn the intimidation and threats
targeting Uyghur and Kazakh women who provide public evidence
of sexual violence and forced sterilizations and forced
abortions in mass internment camps and the journalist who
report these stories;
(4) member states of the United Nations should consider all
Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities detained and imprisoned
through the justice system in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region as arbitrarily detained due to the severe restrictions
on information regarding the cases and because research by
human rights organizations indicate that long prison sentences
were given to individuals for practicing their religion or
engaging in other internationally-recognized human rights;
(5) member states of the United Nations should condemn the
atrocities committed by the Government of the People's Republic
China, including forced sterilizations and other state-
sanctioned violence against women, and take steps to prevent
further crimes against humanity and genocide in the Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region including by demanding that the
Government of the People's Republic of China--
(A) immediately adhere to its commitments under the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide;
(B) end all forced sterilization, forced abortions,
and other state-sanctioned violence against women;
(C) release all individuals from internment camps,
and all others who are unjustly or arbitrarily
detained, including those engaged in forced labor
programs or separated from their families in state-run
boarding schools;
(D) end harassment and restrictions on foreign
journalists while they are traveling in the Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region and immediately end any
threats and intimidation directed at journalists for
reporting about conditions there; and
(E) guarantee the right to the freedom of religion,
including by rebuilding mosques and restoring holy
sites and cemeteries;
(6) member states of the United Nations should take action
to collect and preserve evidence of genocide and crimes against
humanity and establish appropriate special mechanisms and
tribunals to hold accountable officials responsible for
genocide and crimes against humanity, including through the
establishment of an international Commission on Inquiry on
Atrocity Crimes in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; and
(7) the Department of State should be commended for raising
the issue of atrocity crimes and its public determination that
the Government of the People's Republic of China is responsible
for an ongoing genocide and for crimes against humanity in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
SEC. 5. STRATEGY TO ADDRESS GENOCIDE IN THE XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS
REGION.
(a) Finding.--Congress finds that--
(1) the determination of the Secretary of State that the
Government of the People's Republic of China is responsible for
perpetrating both genocide and crimes against humanity
targeting Uyghurs and other predominately Muslim ethnic
minority groups in Xinjiang Uyghurs Autonomous Region is an
issue on which there is widespread bipartisan support in
Congress; and
(2) the atrocities being committed in China are both
horrific and ongoing.
(b) Strategy Required.--Not later than 60 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report that includes a strategy
specifically describing--
(1) the steps already taken to tangibly address atrocity
crimes occurring in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,
especially during the period following the January 19, 2021,
determination that genocide and crimes against humanity were
occurring in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; and
(2) a strategy for ending the atrocity crimes occurring in
the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including by--
(A) holding accountable persons or entities
responsible for committing such atrocity crimes by
addressing, through existing or new export controls or
import restrictions, the issues of mass biometric
surveillance and forced labor programs in China;
(B) gaining access for United Nations, United
States, and other diplomats and foreign journalists to
the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; and
(C) protecting Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other
ethnic minorities affected by the atrocities committed
by the Government of the People's Republic of China.
(c) Form and Publication.--The report required under subsection (b)
shall be submitted in unclassified form and shall be made publicly
available, but may include a classified annex.
(d) Appropriate Congressional Committees.--In this section, the
term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(1) The Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on
Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives.
(2) The Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on
Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations of the
Senate.
SEC. 6. PROTECTION OF UYGHURS, KAZAKHS, AND OTHER ETHNIC MINORITIES IN
THE XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION.
The Secretary of State shall provide all appropriate assistance to
women who belong to the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, or other ethnic
minority and who experienced sexual violence, torture, forced
sterilizations and forced abortions in the People's Republic of China
in order for them to receive needed medical care and psychological
support. All existing authorities shall be used to allow such women to
at least temporarily enter the United States.
SEC. 7. SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO INDIVIDUALS COMMITTING RESPONSIBLE
FOR OR COMPLICIT IN FORCED STERILIZATIONS, FORCED
ABORTIONS, OR OTHER SEXUAL VIOLENCE.
(a) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United States to
consider any foreign person or entity responsible for, complicit in, or
having directly or indirectly engaged in forced sterilizations, forced
abortions, or other sexual violence targeting any individual in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as having committed gross violations
of internationally recognized human rights for purposes of imposing the
sanctions detailed in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability
Act (subtitle F of title XII of the National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2017; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note).
(b) Denial of Entry for Foreign Nationals Engaged in Establishment
or Enforcement of Forced Abortion or Sterilization Policy.--Section 801
of the Admiral James W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2000 and 2001 (Public Law 106-113; 8
U.S.C. 1182e) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b), by striking ``minister.'' and
inserting ``minister, unless--
``(1) the Secretary of State makes a public determination
that the forced sterilizations, forced abortions, or other
coercive population control policies were being committed or
enforced with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group and therefore
constitute genocide or crimes against humanity; or
``(2) the Secretary of State finds that such coercive
population control policies were targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs,
Tibetan or other ethnic minorities or individuals peacefully
expressing internationally-recognized human rights in the
People's Republic of China.'';
(2) in subsection (c), by striking ``national interest''
and inserting ``national security interest''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(d) Notice.--The Secretary of State shall make a public
announcement each time sanctions are imposed under this section as a
result of a determination or finding described in subsection (b)(1) or
(b)(2), respectively.
``(e) Information Requested by Congress.--The Secretary of State
shall, upon request of a Member of Congress--
``(1) provide information about the use of the sanctions
described in this section, including the number of times
imposed, disaggregated by country and by year; or
``(2) provide a classified briefing that includes
information about the individuals or entities sanctioned
pursuant to this section and any other Act authorizing
sanctions with respect to the conduct of such individuals or
entities.''.
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