New FRC Publication Lists Concrete Ways Biden Should Respond to China's Genocide of the Uyghurs

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Mar 10, 2021, 11:56 ET

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Family Research Council published a new issue brief publication today titled, "How the United States Can Address China's Uyghur Genocide." The publication was released ahead of Wednesday's U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom hearing that will discuss "ways in which U.S. companies facilitate the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China through forced labor and other practices that undermine international human rights standards in that country."

The release of the FRC publication also follows a new independent report by more than 50 global experts affirming that China is guilty of genocide and has violated every single provision in the Genocide Declaration. This independent report adds credibility and urgency to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's determination that the Chinese government is committing an ongoing genocide. Pompeo's successor, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, affirmed the genocide declaration. The U.S. is the first country to officially designate China's behavior as genocide.

In its publication, FRC provides specific action items for the Biden administration to punish China for its behavior, while recognizing that the U.S. and China have a complex and interconnected relationship as major trading partners and strategic competitors:

President Biden should encourage Congress to pass, and then sign, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (S. 65/H.R. 1155) to prohibit goods manufactured by forced labor or slavery in Xinjiang from being imported into the United States.
The Biden administration should ensure that U.S. support for the UN Population Fund does not contribute to coerced sterilizations in China, to prevent U.S. complicity in the genocide.
Biden administration treasury officials should apply targeted sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for atrocities.
Biden administration diplomats should encourage like-minded countries to condemn China's atrocities.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins responded:

"The ongoing genocide in Xinjiang is one of the critical human rights challenges of our time. We need all hands on deck, including the full force of the U.S. government. Sadly, one voice that is silent is the corporate world. One recent survey asked the 48 largest US corporations with operations in China whether they had a position on what was occurring in Xinjiang. Only one company expressed concern over the allegations of forced labor.

"Instead of calling out these horrific human rights abuses, American corporations including Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple were shamefully lobbying to weaken the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Many of these same corporations are spending their profits, derived in some cases from forced labor, lecturing Americans on social justice. It is time for corporate America to move beyond woke posturing to true human rights advocacy," concluded Perkins.

Arielle Del Turco, Assistant Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, who authored the FRC issue brief, said:

"Beijing's targeted, widespread perpetration of forced sterilizations and abortions on Uyghur women led the U.S. to determine that genocide is ongoing in China. The Chinese Communist Party is systematically obliterating the ethnic and religious minority through mass incarceration, slave labor, indoctrination and brainwashing, systematic abortion and sterilization, targeted religious defilement, family separation, and rape. Beijing is carrying out these atrocities on a scale the world has not seen in 75 years.

"The United States' commitment to the 1948 Genocide Convention obligates it to take action to prevent and punish genocide. According to a new Pew Research poll, 70 percent of Americans think the U.S. should try to promote human rights in China, even if it harms economic relations with China. Such a huge number of Americans siding with human rights over the economy highlights our urgent moral duty to hold China accountable for its gross violations of fundamental human rights. U.S. reluctance to engage will embolden China and other abusers of human rights, who will interpret it as weakness. If President Joe Biden was sincere when he said he wants to restore America's moral leadership in the international community, then punishing China for its genocide of the Uyghurs is the place to start," concluded Del Turco.

To read the full publication, visit: frc.org/uyghurgenocide.

SOURCE Family Research Council