Sen. Cruz Introduces Legislation Sanctioning and Calling Out Chinese Officials for Ethnic Cleansing, Including Forced Abortions, of Uyghurs and Other Minorities

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I this week introduced the Sanctioning and Highlighting Authoritarian Medicine and Eugenics (SHAME) Act, legislation sanctioning Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for systematic ethnic cleansing, including through forced abortions and other coercive population control measures in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The legislation also requires the publication and maintenance of data about those officials, including their human rights record.

Upon introducing the legislation, I said:

"We know the CCP has as little regard for the living as they do for the unborn. Not only is the authoritarian regime forcing over one million Uyghurs into concentration camps, the Chinese Communist Party is also engaged in ethnic cleansing - forcing abortion and sterilization of Uyghur women. These are egregious human rights atrocities that cannot be tolerated. The SHAME Act imposes targeted sanctions on the Chinese officials for these atrocities and ensures the public knows who they are."

Read the full text of the SHAME Act here. I have long fought to shine a light on the CCP's human rights atrocities against the Uyghurs. In 2019, I led a successful push to secure the blacklisting of companies that the CCP uses in its oppression of minorities such as the Uyghurs, including by introducing the TIANANMEN Act.

Earlier this year, I joined my colleagues in introducing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, legislation holding the CCP accountable for the use of forced labor in the XUAR. In July, I joined my colleagues in sending a bipartisan, bicameral letter to Secretaries Mike Pompeo and Steven Mnuchin regarding the ongoing atrocities taking place in the XUAR. In September, I also joined my Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to The Walt Disney Company's Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek, inquiring about Disney's cooperation with Xinjiang's security and propaganda authorities in the production of the movie Mulan.

After the CCP first announced sanctions against me, I delivered remarks on the Senate floor urging my colleagues to hold China accountable for their coronavirus cover-up and for engaging in censorship and propaganda campaigns in China and here in the United States.

I am leading the charge to fundamentally reassess the U.S.-China relationship and counter Chinese censorship. Most recently, I introduced the SUSPEND Act to sanction China for arms control and nuclear weapons violations. Learn more about my comprehensive efforts here.