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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 22, 2020

Acting Under Secretary Hull Describes to an International Religious Freedom Panel Recent BIS Actions to Prevent Human Rights Abuses and Religious Repression in Xinjiang, China 

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) employs every tool at its disposal to ensure American technology does not get into the hands of those implicated in human rights abuses and the brutal repression of Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China, Acting Under Secretary for Industry and Security Cordell Hull told the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today in a virtual hearing.

“Preventing exports to parties complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China’s campaign of religious repression of Muslim minority groups in XUAR remains a top priority of this administration,” said Hull. “American technologies are created in an environment of freedom and liberty. The role of BIS is to ensure our technology is not used to undermine freedom, including religious liberties, across the globe.”

The ruling Chinese Communist Party continues to carry out a campaign of repression in the XUAR, targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups. Since at least April 2017, the government of the People’s Republic of China has detained for indefinite periods more than one million members of Muslim minority groups in internment camps designed to eradicate detainees’ cultural and religious identities.

BIS advances U.S. national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives by ensuring an effective export control and treaty compliance system and promoting continued U.S. strategic technology leadership. BIS has added a total of 48 entities to the Entity List in connection with their involvement in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, and high-technology surveillance targeted at Muslim minority groups in the XUAR, most recently by adding 11 entities on July 21, 2020.

See hearing here and his prepared statement here.

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