{
  "id": "R45956",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R45956",
  "active": true,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
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      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 606114,
      "date": "2019-10-09",
      "retrieved": "2019-10-10T22:17:05.214747",
      "title": "Human Rights in China and U.S. Policy: Issues for the 116th Congress",
      "summary": "This report examines selected human rights issues in the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) and policy options for Congress. U.S. concern over human rights in China has been a central issue in U.S.-China relations, particularly since the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. In recent years, human rights conditions in China have deteriorated, while bilateral tensions related to trade and security have increased, possibly creating both constraints and opportunities for U.S. policy on human rights.\nAfter consolidating power in 2013, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping intensified and expanded the reassertion of party control over society that began during the final years of his predecessor, Hu Jintao. Since 2015, the government has enacted new laws that place further restrictions on civil society in the name of national security, authorize greater control over minority and religious groups, and reduce the autonomy of citizens. PRC methods of social and political control are evolving to include the widespread use of sophisticated surveillance and big data technologies. \nGovernment arrests of human rights advocates and lawyers, which intensified in 2015, were followed by party efforts to instill ideological conformity across various spheres of society. In 2016, President Xi launched a policy known as \u201cSinicization,\u201d through which the government has taken additional measures to compel China\u2019s religious practitioners and ethnic minorities to conform to Chinese culture, the socialist system, and Communist Party policies and to eliminate foreign influences. In the past decade, the PRC government has imposed severe restrictions on the religious and cultural activities, and increasingly on all aspects of the daily lives, of Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group who practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam and live primarily in the far western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Since 2017, government authorities in Xinjiang have detained, without formal charges, up to an estimated 1.5 million Uyghurs out of a population of about 10.5 million, and a smaller number of ethnic Kazakhs, in ideological re-education centers. Some may have engaged in religious and ethnic cultural practices that the government now perceives as extremist or terrorist, or as manifesting \u201cstrongly religious\u201d views or thoughts that could lead to the spread of religious extremism or terrorism. Members of the 116th Congress have introduced several bills and resolutions related to human rights issues in China, particularly regarding Tibetans, Uyghurs, and religious freedom. \nSuccessive U.S. Administrations and Congresses have deployed an array of means for promoting human rights and democracy in China, often exercised simultaneously. Policy tools include open censure of China; quiet diplomacy; congressional hearings, legislation, investigations, statements, letters, and visits; funding for rule of law and civil society programs in the PRC; support for human rights defenders and prodemocracy groups; sanctions; bilateral dialogue; internet freedom efforts; international broadcasting; and coordinated international pressure, including through multilateral organizations. Another high-profile practice is the State Department\u2019s issuance of congressionally mandated country reports and/or rankings, including on human rights, religious freedom, and trafficking in persons. \nBroadly, possible approaches for promoting human rights in China may range from those emphasizing bilateral and international engagement to those conditioning the further development of bilateral ties on improvements in human rights conditions in China; in practice, approaches may combine elements of both engagement and conditionality. Some approaches may reflect a perceived need to balance U.S. values and human rights concerns with other U.S. interests in the bilateral relationship. Others may challenge the assumption that promoting human rights values involves trade-offs with other interests, reflecting instead a view that fostering greater respect for human rights is fundamental to other U.S. objectives.\n(This report does not discuss the distinct human rights and democracy issues in the PRC\u2019s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. For information on developments in Hong Kong, see CRS In Focus IF11295, Hong Kong\u2019s Protests of 2019, by Michael F. Martin.)",
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      "topics": []
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  "topics": [
    "Asian Affairs",
    "Economic Policy",
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Intelligence and National Security",
    "National Defense"
  ]
}