A congressional committee issued a statement affirming dedication to assisting the Uyghur people in the fight against the genocidal actions carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party also adopted policy proposals to enhance Taiwan's deterrence, according to a May 24 news release. The proposals were announced by Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.
“The competition with the CCP requires us working together across the aisle, and we are proud that today we voted overwhelmingly to adopt the Select Committee’s first policy recommendations regarding the Uyghur genocide and Taiwan,” Krishnamoorthi and Gallagher said in the release. “This is only a first step, and we will continue operating in a bipartisan way to send a message that we are committed to deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and that we won’t turn a blind eye as the CCP commits genocide, ‘the crime above all crimes,’ against the Uyghur people.”
The Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, have endured forced labor, genocide and other atrocities by the CCP for several years, BBC News reported.
“During my time in Congress I have never heard testimony more disturbing than the firsthand accounts of torture, forced sterilization and mass internment that we heard at the Select Committee’s hearing on the persecution of the Uyghur people," Gallagher said in the release. "These atrocities easily clear any reasonable definition of genocide, the 'crime above all crimes.'"
He noted the Select Committee took its first step toward bipartisan action by adopting these policy recommendations to sanction CCP officials responsible, work to ensure American companies are not complicit and put an end to the loophole to curtail profits from Uyghur forced labor, the release reported.
The CCP is accused of establishing re-education camps, where a large number of Uyghur individuals are reportedly being held against their will. These camps are primarily centered around forced labor and detention, the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University reported.
Disturbing allegations have emerged, including forced sterilizations of women, slavery occurring within factories and various reprehensible acts perpetrated against Uyghur families, such as children being taken away from their parents and sent to orphanages, according to George Washington University.
Despite the CCP's denial, multiple countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands – have accused the CCP of engaging in widespread genocide. Since 2017, numerous nations have been conducting investigations, according to the BBC.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the UK Parliament are two of the agencies that have led such inquiries. The findings provide evidence that support allegations such as forced sterilization, genocide and the existence of re-education camps, BBC News reported.
