Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act

On the same day that President Trump signed the Act into law, former National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed that Trump had, on two occasions, told Chinese leader Xi Jinping to go forward with plans related to Uyghur internment.[17][22]

Editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post supported the passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.[23][24] Opinion pieces written in various publications also supported the passage of the Act.[25]

The CCP claim of deradicalization drew criticism in an article by the Deccan Chronicle,[26] while an article written by Srikanth Kondapalli made criticisms of the PRC's grand strategy for Xinjiang.[27] Analysts cited in an article by Reuters said that Mainland China's response to passage of the Uyghur bill could be stronger than its reaction to the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,[19] while the BBC's China correspondent said that if the bill became law, then it would mark the most significant international attempt to pressure mainland China over its mass detention of the Uyghurs.[28]

On December 3, 2019, a World Uyghur Congress spokesman said that the House bill is important in opposing "China's continued push of extreme persecution," and that the organization looks forward to President Trump signing the bill.[19][28] Various Uyghur activists, think tank analysts, and political representatives called on various governments to sanction Mainland Chinese officials for their perceived involvement in the Xinjiang conflict.[29]

Uyghur-American lawyer Nury Turkel—who is a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, and a former President of the Uyghur American Association—thanked President Trump for signing the Act and further wrote that, "It's a great day for America and the Uighur people."[30] Turkel would also go on to say that the American government must use the new bill to impose sanctions on Chinese officials for religious persecution. He also urged Congress to pass a second bill, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to presume that any goods produced in Xinjiang are the product of forced labor.[31][32]

Memetrusul Hesen, a Uyghur and former resident of Kargilik County (Yecheng) in Xinjiang's Kashgar Prefecture, who is now a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, left China with his aged mother in 2016. After a brief period of contact via phone in 2016, he had no longer been able to speak with his family or any of the members of his extended family up to mid-2020, despite having filed numerous requests for information at the Chinese embassy. Hesen said that his mother, Halimihan Ahun, 92, sits and cries every day. In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Hesen expressed thanks to the United States for thinking about Uyghur suffering, and expressed hope the bill's passage could be a driving force for change.[33]

The Chinese government have called the bill a malicious attack on China and demanded that the United States prevent it from becoming law, warning that it would act to defend its interests as necessary.[19] On December 4, 2019, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the bill "wantonly smeared China's counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts."[3] Four days later, Ëziz Eli (艾则孜·艾力)—County Magistrate of Niya County and Vice Secretary of the Niya County County Communist Party Committee—and Perhat Roza (帕尔哈提·肉孜)—Vice Secretary and Commissioner of the Kashgar Prefecture Communist Party Committee—penned criticisms of the Act.[34][35]

In December 2019, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates defended China's actions in Xinjiang and condemned the U.S. Uyghur human rights bill as a "blatant interference by the US in the internal affairs of the People's Republic of China."[36]