On June 17, 2020, the President signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 into law. The law authorizes the President to impose sanctions on persons, including Chinese government officials, determined to be responsible for certain human rights violations and abuses committed against Muslim minority groups in China or elsewhere. The law requires the administration to sanction those individuals by blocking their assets and declaring them ineligible for visas or admission to the United States. The President may waive sanctions if s/he deems it in the national interest.
With the bill now signed into law, the Trump Administration is required to submit a report to the US Congress identifying foreign individuals to be sanctioned within 180 days of the law’s enactment, and then annually thereafter. The US Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of National Intelligence are also required to issue similar reports. The White House issued this statement along with the signing of the bill.
The legislation passed both chambers of Congress last month with overwhelming support. Our previous blog post on this bill can be found here.
The author thanks Ryan Orange for his contributions to this blog post.
