A New Battle Against Persecution: Congress Wants to Sanction China's 'Uyghur DNA Collection Lab' Again

A group of Republican members of the House of Representatives, led by U.S. Senator Rick Scott, has introduced a bill to reinstate the Chinese Ministry of Public Security's Institute of Forensic Medicine on the U.S. Department of Commerce's sanctions list.

The bill, called the "Chinese Communist Party's Human Rights Abuses Act," aims to reinstate restrictions previously imposed by the Trump administration, which were later rescinded by the Biden administration.

The Institute of Forensic Medicine, a key department of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, was placed on the U.S. government's sanctions list in 2020 for its involvement in human rights abuses, particularly the collection and monitoring of Uyghur DNA. However, the Biden administration removed the institution from the sanctions list in November 2023 and announced its cooperation with China on counternarcotics in exchange.

The new bill criticises the previous Biden administration's decision. Scott said, "The Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security plays a significant role in the Chinese regime's surveillance operation, enabling widespread detention, forced labour, and sophisticated technological persecution of the Uyghur people and other Muslim minorities."

Other members of parliament supported his view, emphasising the need to hold this Chinese institution accountable for its crimes of persecution and genocide, and that this bill would reaffirm America's resolve to hold human rights violators accountable.