China threatens retaliation as US passes Uyghur Bill

Washington/Beijing, Dec 4

The US Congress overwhelmingly passed a Bill seeking a tough response from the Trump administration over reports of mass detention centres in China’s Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, prompting Beijing to threaten possible retaliation.

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which among other things, proposes that America redirects resources to address the mass internment of over 1,000,000 Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in China.

The Act, which calls for an end to the detaining, torture and harassment of the Uyghur communities in China, was passed by the Senate earlier. By passing this Bill, the Congress is showing that the US will not turn a blind eye to the suffering of the oppressed, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said. “As with the Hong Kong Democracy and Human Rights Act, we are sending a simple but powerful message to the Communist Party: power cannot be maintained at the expense of the rights of the people without substantial consequences,” he said.

Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the Bill is an important step in countering the totalitarian Chinese government’s widespread and horrific human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Among these include the mass internment of more than one million Uyghurs and other predominantly ethnic Turkic Muslims, as well as Beijing’s intimidation and threats against US citizens and legal permanent residents on American soil. — PTI