Joint Subcommittee Briefing on "China’s Oppression of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang"

Chairman Lynch's Opening Statement [PDF]

Washington D.C. (Aug. 14, 2020)—On Monday, August 17, 2020, at 11:00 a.m., Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform's Subcommittee on National Security, and Rep. Ami Bera, M.D., Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation will hold a joint briefing on "China's Oppression of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang."

Since at least late 2016, China has detained between one and three million Uyghurs in re-education camps, where they are "forced to learn Mandarin, renounce ‘extremist' thoughts and undergo daily indoctrination in Chinese Communist Party propaganda," in violation of China's constitution and international labor and human rights laws.

China's repressive tactics are designed to subjugate and assimilate the Uyghur population, and some experts have argued that China is committing "demographic genocide." In June 2020, reports emerged that China was carrying out a forced birth control campaign in Xinjiang that resulted in birth rates decreasing "more than 60% from 2015 to 2018."

The briefing will examine these human rights abuses and steps the Trump Administration should take alongside the international community, including global businesses and multilateral instructions, to hold China accountable.