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Uyghur Policy Act of 2025

Floor Speech

By: Young Kim
By: Young Kim
Date: Sept. 2, 2025
Location: Washington, DC

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Mrs. KIM. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Representative Baumgartner, for yielding and for managing the floor today.

I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 2635, the Uyghur Policy Act of 2025.

The Uyghur Policy Act of 2025 comes at a very important time. The Chinese Communist Party continues to deny its genocide against the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. We know that forced sterilization, forced labor, brainwashing, and torture are rampant in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Despite exposure of the CCP's crimes, Xi Jinping is doubling down. A civil society investigation uncovered that the CCP's harassment and forced transfer of Uyghur workers is more pervasive than previously thought, with individuals relocated over 2,000 miles away from the Uyghur region.

Meanwhile, Uyghur human rights advocates and family members of detainees are intimidated and harassed by the CCP's transnational repression and espionage campaigns abroad. The fact that this happens here on U.S. soil is unacceptable and threatens our homeland.

The Uyghur Policy Act directs the Secretary of State to lead all United States Government policies and programs that support Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It counteracts transnational repression against the Uyghur diaspora and creates reporting mechanisms for Uyghur victims.

It also works to expose and disrupt Beijing's state-sponsored forced labor programs that exploit Uyghurs in order to dominate vital industries. This includes the cotton industry, where more than 20 percent of the world's cotton is a product of Uyghur forced labor. We need to make sure that our economy is not subsidized by the CCP's human rights abuses.

The United States must show through words and through actions that we will have Uyghurs' backs in their fight against the CCP's tyranny. We must leverage U.S. soft power, garner international support for Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, and equip the State Department with the tools that it needs to effectively fight against Xi Jinping's genocidal campaign.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Representative Ami Bera, for leading this bipartisan legislation with me, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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