Chairs’ Statement on Release of Xinjiang Police Files

(Washington)—Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA), the Chair and Cochair respectively of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, issued the following statement on the release of leaked police documents from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

“Newly-released files from a leaked police database highlight the role Xi Jinping and other top officials had in crafting the genocidal policies employed in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and demonstrate clearly that Turkic Muslims are detained because of their cultural and religious identity and not for any specific criminal actions. The evidence presented is overwhelming and horrific and cannot be ignored or pushed aside by the international community. We urge the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to confront Chinese officials with the evidence presented by these leaked documents on her visit to the XUAR this week. We will continue to work with the Administration on strategies to address the human rights crimes being committed in the XUAR—including through new sanctions and vigorous implementation of import restrictions next month on goods produced with forced labor. No one should profit from genocide and crimes against humanity. We again call on the Chinese government to end immediately its egregious human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic and religious minorities.”