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WASHINGTON — The House passed the Uyghur Policy Act on Tuesday, a bill that advances a strategy for the United States to support Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities enduring persecution at the hands of China’s government. It’s the latest try for the measure, which was passed by the House in the past two congressional terms without advancing further. Sponsored by a bipartisan group led by Rep. Young Kim, a California Republican, and Rep. Ami Bera, a California Democrat, the measure calls on the State Department to oversee Uyghur human rights-related…

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers this week announced a bill that would broaden existing sanctions to combat what one senator called “a deliberate and systematic campaign to destroy the Uyghur people” — one of a set of bills targeting China over its treatment of minority groups, dissidents and Taiwan as bilateral trade negotiations continue. The measure would expand the sanctions under a previous law to include actions like forced family separations and organ harvesting. It would also deny entry to the U.S. for people found to have participated in…

A new report says major Chinese producers of critical minerals are using state-imposed forced labor programs in the Uyghur region to meet rising global demand, putting international brands they export to at risk of complicity in human rights violations. According to the report by Hague-based rights group Global Rights Compliance, 77 companies and downstream manufacturers of critical minerals-based products operate in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), placing them at risk of participation in the labor transfer programs in the lithium, titanium, beryllium, and magnesium industries. The findings are likely…

Radio Free Asia has provided a unique, international news service for Uyghurs that has exposed China’s creeping persecution of the minority Muslim group in real time, culminating in the eventual U.S. government declaration of a genocide. RFA Uyghur was in the vanguard on reporting a massive crackdown in the Xinjiang region in the far west of China in 2017 which led to an estimated 1.8 million people confined in internment camps. By speaking directly to sources inside Xinjiang, it documented the repression of Uyghurs as the crackdown began before other…

Uyghur human rights advocates are criticizing Harvard University for training officials from a Chinese paramilitary organization sanctioned by the U.S. government for human rights abuses, including mass detention and forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Officials from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) participated in Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s executive training programs in 2023 and 2024, according to research by the China-focused think tank Strategy Risks. The program, delivered in partnership with China’s National Healthcare Security Administration, focused on health insurance governance and public…

Rushan Abbas is one of the most prominent international advocates for the rights of ethnic Uyghurs. Her memoir, “Unbroken: One Uyghur’s Fight for Freedom,” will be published on June 10. The book explores her personal journey from her pro-democracy activism as a student in China in the 1980s, to her move to the United States in 1989, and her efforts to draw attention to the plight of Uyghurs in the face of mass internments and other grave abuses that the U.S. government says constitute genocide. uyghur-rushan-abbas-book-interview Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.,…

The British government says a new state-owned renewable energy company will not be allowed to source solar panels made with Chinese slave labor. The government announced Wednesday that it will introduce an amendment to ensure that the planned company, Great British Energy, will not have slavery in its supply chains. China is the dominant global player in the renewable energy market including solar energy. The BBC cited customs data that Britain imports more than 40% of its solar photovoltaics from China. A key component is polysilicon sourced from the Xinjiang…

German chemical giant BASF said Tuesday it has divested shares of its joint ventures in China’s Xinjiang region, a move welcomed by Uyghur activists concerned over used of forced labor there. Since late 2023, BASF announced its intention to divest its shares in BASF Markor Chemical Manufacturing and Markor Meiou Chemical in Xinjiang’s Korla region. German media had alleged its local partner was involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang. BASF said Tuesday in a statement that the buyer was Verde Chemical Singapore Pte. Ltd. which is majority controlled by…

When I was a Uyghur child living in communist China in the 1970s, we had no way of knowing what was happening around the world, within China, or even to our own Uyghur people in our homeland of East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang, China). For colonized people like us, living under a total information blackout and bombarded by communist propaganda 24/7, discovering the truth was not a luxury – it was a yearning, something we sometimes risked our lives for. I remember those days vividly. My father would gather…

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee this week approved bipartisan legislation to support Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities subject to human rights abuses by China. The Uyghur Policy Act is the latest legislative effort to protect the rights of persecuted Muslim minority. The U.S. government has determined that China’s treatment of Uyghurs amounts to genocide. The bill is co-sponsored by nine Republicans and Democrats led by Rep. Young Kim and Rep. Ami Bera, who are the chair and ranking member respectively of the House sub-committee for East Asia and the…