Uyghur-American activists have welcomed the 2025 U.S. defense spending bill’s inclusion of key laws aimed at the repression of Uyghurs in China, including one that requires the federal government to monitor rights abuses in Xinjiang and sanction implicated Chinese officials.
The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on Dec. 18 and signed by President Joe Biden on Dec. 22. It authorizes $895 billion in defense spending for 2025 and contains a plethora of other bills, with the final document standing at 1,813 pages.
Among those were the bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Policy Reauthorization Act of 2024, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, and renews the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.
The legislation was passed in 2020 during the first administration of President Donald Trump and was on track to “sunset” in 2025 if not renewed, but will now expire in 2030.
It authorizes sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for what the U.S. government calls a “genocide” against the Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region.
Omer Kanat, the executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, called the inclusion of the bill “a gift of hope for Uyghurs.”
“Congressional leaders stand with the Uyghur people to dial up the pressure to end the atrocities in our homeland,” he said in a statement. “We thank the Republicans and Democrats who came together in the House and the Senate … to ensure that sanctions continue.”
RELATED STORIES
Trump signs Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act into law
New U.S. bill would appoint expert to monitor rights abuses in Xinjiang
US Congressional Uyghur Caucus introduces new sanctions bill
Also included in the 2025 defense package is a bill restricting the U.S. military from using federal funds to “buy any solar energy products made in the Uyghur Region or any other place in China, which are known to be produced with forced labor.”
Under the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, it is already illegal to import such products into the United States, but the new provision prevents the Department of Defense from sourcing such items for use by the U.S. military anywhere else in the world.
The legislation also requires the Pentagon to compile a report about whether it is procuring seafood caught using slave labor in China, and detailing the measures in place to prevent that.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.