Bipartisan Bills Target China’s Human Rights Violations Amid US–China Trade Talks

The bills are aimed at tackling the CCP’s transnational repression against dissident, ethnic, and religious groups, and to support Taiwan.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) (L), joined by Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) (R), speaks during a press conference discussing the implications of the Safeguarding National Security Bill (Article 23 legislation) at the House Triangle near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on March 22, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A group of bipartisan lawmakers are introducing legislation this week targeting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) human rights violations at home as well as its transnational repression campaigns, as Washington and Beijing resumed trade talks in Stockholm.

The bills are sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) of the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC).

One of the bills seeks to tackle “transnational repression”—acts by foreign governments and their proxies to target overseas dissidents, journalists, and other persecuted groups.

The bill is sponsored in the House by Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and James McGovern (D-Mass.).

In a CECC hearing in September 2023, Merkley said that transnational repression was “central to the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy of silencing critics of Chinese policy around the world.”

The commission’s report for 2024 said the Chinese regime “continued a multifaceted campaign of transnational repression to intimidate and enhance control over critics, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, and others.”

The report stated that the CCP “continued to monitor, detain, and imprison Falun Gong adherents.” Earlier this month, at an event marking the regime’s 26-year-long persecution of Falun Gong, Smith called the CCP’s targeting the spiritual discipline’s adherents in the United States “transnational terrorism.”

Another bill, sponsored in the House by Smith and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), seeks to expand sanctioning powers over the Chinese regime’s human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims, to cover more acts of human rights violations and those responsible for the transnational repression of Uyghurs.

According to human rights experts, Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region have been subjected to mass detention, with an estimated 1 million placed in a sprawling network of internment camps and other detention facilities in Xinjiang.

Survivors of the camps have described experiencing forced labor, forced sterilizations, political indoctrination, and other abuses during their time in detention.

A third bill Merkley is introducing, co-sponsored by Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), aims to help Taiwan as the self-ruled island faces increasing pressure from mainland China. It would support countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan and would take other steps to deepen coordination with Taipei.

The CCP has never ruled Taiwan, but it views the island democracy as its territory and has repeatedly threatened to annex it by force. The regime has sabotaged Taiwan’s diplomatic relations and blocked its participation in international organizations. It insists the world should follow its “One China” policy, which claims that the communist regime is the only legitimate government on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In a statement, Merkley said the United States “cannot afford to be weak in the face of the People’s Republic of China and its aggression around the world.”

“No matter who is in the White House, America’s values of freedom and human rights must remain at the heart of a clear and principled vision that guides our leadership on the global stage,” he added.

On Monday, U.S. officials led by U.S. Treasury Chief Scott Bessent met Beijing’s delegation in Stockholm to renew trade talks, paving the way for U.S. President Donald Trump’s potential visit to China.

China is facing an Aug. 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with the Trump administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals.

Bessent said last week that the deadline will likely be extended. Officials are expected to resume talks on Tuesday.

Reuters contributed to this report.