[ad_1]
Pekin – A bipartisan group of US legislators wants President Donald Trump to help Muslims cope with the crackdown in northwestern China.
The group on Wednesday proposed a law that would urge Trump to condemn the "gross violations" of human rights in the Xinjiang region, where the UN estimates that nearly one million Uighurs and Uighurs Other predominantly Muslim minorities are currently in arbitrary detention. He would ask Trump to pressure his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to immediately close the "political re-education camps."
The legislation, proposed by the Congressional Executive Committee on China, would also support pressure for sanctions against Xinjiang Communist Party leader Chen Quanguo and other officials under the Magnitsky law, which would prevent Chen from entering the United States and freeze all his assets. in US banks.
The bill also plans to ban the sale or supply of US-made goods or services to Xinjiang state agents and the banning of some Chinese entities – including the police bureau of Xinjiang. Xinjiang – to buy equipment manufactured in the United States that could be used. used for monitoring.
The bipartite parliamentary commission monitors human rights and the rule of law in China.
The Chinese authorities have denied the existence of internment camps but have claimed that petty criminals are sent to "vocational training centers". On Tuesday, the Xinjiang government revised its legislation to officially authorize the use of "education and training centers" to reform "people influenced by extremism."
A new clause requires centers to teach the Mandarin language, professional and legal training, as well as "ideological education, psychological rehabilitation and behavioral correction".
Australian researcher James Leibold described the move as "retrospective justification" for mass detentions.
"This is a new form of unprecedented rehabilitation and one that does not really have a legal basis, and I see them scrambling to try to create a legal basis for this policy," said Leibold, an expert in Chinese ethnic politics at Trobe University.
Maya Wang, a senior human rights researcher for China, said in a statement that "no adjustment in national or regional rules" can change the nature of the camps.
"Without due process, Xinjiang's political education centers remain arbitrary and abusive," Wang said.
The ruling Communist Party said that increased security was needed to fight extremism in Xinjiang.
The measures proposed by US lawmakers come as US-China relations have deteriorated due to a growing tariff dispute over US complaints about Beijing's technology policy.
Last week, US Vice President Mike Pence accused Beijing of trying to influence the outcome of the November elections. The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected this argument, calling it "blaming and slandering China without foundation".
Beijing has spent decades suppressing Xinjiang's pro-independence sentiment, fueled in part by frustration over an influx of migrants from the Han majority in China. Authorities say the extremists have links to foreign terrorist groups but have little evidence to support.
The action taken by Congress calls for the creation of a State Department position to coordinate financial and diplomatic responses, a database of US residents providing details of missing family members, and an accelerated asylum procedure for the minority groups concerned.
The congressional committee also warned Wednesday in an annual report the "long arm" of a China "rising and increasingly aggressive".
The 300-page report describes a "downward trajectory" on human rights since Xi's takeover in 2012. He says the ruling party is trying to "redefine" the rights of the country. man and "fundamental human dignity".
"Chinese authoritarianism in China directly threatens our freedoms as well as our deepest values and our national interests," said Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio and New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith.
The European Union expressed a similar concern about Xinjiang last week.
The EU is "deeply concerned by credible reports of a serious deterioration" in human rights, said Federica Mogherini, head of foreign policy for the 28-nation bloc.
Mogherini called on all countries to carefully consider asylum applications.
Omir Bekali, described by the Associated Press in May, features in the bill among those who have testified to indoctrination, humiliation and indefinite detention of any kind. interned.
The detainees were ordered to sing "Thank the Feast! Thank the Homeland!" before meals, according to Bekali, citizen of Kazakhstan, originally from China, born in China.
The congressional commission is also seeking FBI information on Chinese activities on US soil. US citizens, Chinese students and other US residents said they were harassed about Xinjiang, the commission said in a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray.
Uighurs from Istanbul, Turkey, told AP this year that the Chinese authorities had asked them to spy on their fellow Uighurs abroad in exchange for information on their family members in Xinjiang.
