Senators Urge Treasury to Boost Sanctions on China for Uyghur Repression

Four Republican senators asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter last week to explain why her department hasn’t made greater use of its authority to sanction those who commit human rights violations against China’s Uyghur minority.

The senators want to know why Treasury has only designated two people under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which had its authorities expanded by Congress when it passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in December 2021 (see 2112230021). The senators are also wondering why the department hasn’t issued new sanctions against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary organization with a 50% or more stake in more than 2,800 companies in China.

The senators said more sanctions are needed to counter the “genocide and crimes against humanity” that China is committing against the Uyghurs. China enslaves more than 3 million Uyghurs for forced labor, holds at least 1.8 million of them in political prison camps, and forces Uyghur women and girls to undergo abortions and sterilizations, the letter says.

“The Biden administration has no lack of tools to hold the [Chinese Communist Party] to account, and yet it has struggled to make full use of these authorities,” the senators wrote. “Not only should XPCC be sanctioned to the fullest extent of the law, but Treasury should also sanction its subsidiaries.”

The letter asks Treasury to give senators a report by June 21 on its use of Uyghur-related sanctions. The letter is signed by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Bill Cassidy, R-La., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

Although Treasury and the Chinese embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the letter, Yellen told Blackburn at a Senate Finance Committee hearing in March that "I absolutely agree with you that Treasury and the Biden administration should be sanctioning human rights violations that are occurring in Xinjiang. There is no appeasement, I want to assure you, on this matter.”