May 25, 2023: The House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party led by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher released two separate reports on May 24, 2023 that offers a set of policy recommendations to address human rights abuses against Uyghurs and to prevent war with China over Taiwan. The emphasis on the Taiwan report is on enhancing military capabilities.
“These are our first attempts at a policy process,” Gallagher said during a committee meeting. “They do not represent the last word on either of these issues… We will continue to discuss these issues. They’re very complex.”
The top three findings and recommendations on Uyghur report are:
- The perpetrators of the CCP’s genocide continue to commit atrocities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and have not been held sufficiently accountable for their actions. Congress should consider passing the Uyghur Human Rights Sanctions Review Act (H.R.1324), which would require the Treasury Department to make sanction determinations on ten PRC technology companies, including Hikvision, ByteDance, Dahua, Tiandy, and BGI, for their complicity in the Uyghur genocide.
- The United States has led the way in trying to hold the perpetrators of the CCP’s genocide and crimes against humanity accountable, but other countries have lagged in fulfilling their treaty commitments to prevent or halt genocide as well as to protect victims. Congress should pass the bipartisan Uyghur Policy Act (H.R. 2766) authorizing the creation of a Special Coordinator for Uyghur issues within the State Department to coordinate Uyghur human rights policy in the United States.
- Products made with Uyghur forced labor continue to contaminate global supply chains. Congress should provide additional resources to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enforce more rigorously the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and to make a comprehensive list of all companies complicit in forced labor.
The top three findings and recommendations on preventing war over Taiwan are:
- The United States needs additional long-range missiles and unmanned vehicles in the Indo-Pacific region and the U.S. defense manufacturing base is not postured to quickly produce the needed numbers. The US must build and maintain sufficient stockpiles of critical munitions to deter and deny a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) attack.
- The United States and its allies need to strengthen and better coordinate collective planning for how they will deter or would respond diplomatically and economically to a crisis over Taiwan. Congress should pass legislation similar to the STAND with Taiwan Act of 2023 that mandates the development of an economic sanctions package to be employed in the event of a PRC attack on Taiwan.
- Improving combined training between the U.S. and Taiwanese militaries will bolster deterrence. Congress should build on the FY 2023 language in The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act by promoting the expansion of combined training and exercises, including annual tabletop exercises and operational training with U.S. air, maritime, and special operations forces and U.S. National Guard units, to build trust, improve Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, and strengthen interoperability and integration in key operational areas.
More Information:
The Chinese Communist Party’s Ongoing Uyghur Genocide: Policy Recommendations
Ten for Taiwan. Policy Recommendations to Preserve Peace and Stability in the Taiwan Strait
