Hawley moves to personally sanction Xi, top CCP officials over 'complicity' in Uyghur genocide

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EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Josh Hawley is introducing legislation affirming that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his top associates are "personally complicit" in genocide against Uyghur Muslims.

The bill put forward by Hawley, R-Mo., holds that Xi is complicit in "crimes against humanity" perpetrated against Uyghurs, sanctions Xi and senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and directs the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to provide regular reports on the CCP officials who directed the crimes.

Sanctions freezing the U.S.-controlled assets of Xi and his top officials and barring them from entering the U.S.

"While Joe Biden is distracted, Xi Jinping is rapidly consolidating power within the Chinese Communist Party, power he intends to use to compel the world to turn a blind eye to the crimes of his regime," Hawley told Fox News Digital.

UN REPORT CITES ALLEGED ‘PATTERNS OF ABUSE’ IN CHINA'S TREATMENT OF UYGHUR MINORITY

China's President Xi Jinping would be sanctioned under Hawley's bill. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool, File)

"But we must not look away. We must hold Xi and his lieutenants accountable for their crimes against humanity and we can start by imposing real costs for their complicity in the atrocities in Xinjiang," he continued.

The senator said the bill was introduced as the CCP 20th National Party Congress is set to conclude the end of the week by electing President Xi to a third term.

The bill states: "The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party opened on October 16, 2022, bringing with it further consolidation of power by General Secretary Xi Jinping, who appears determined to tighten control over those individuals deemed to be enemies of the Chinese Communist Party, including Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region."

The bill comes after the United Nations released a report in August alleging the Chinese government had committed "serious human rights violations" in its detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang.

Sen. Josh Hawley is introducing legislation that would affirm that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his top associates are "personally complicit" in genocide against Uyghur Muslims. (Getty Images)

Drawn from interviews with former detainees at eight separate detention centers in the region, its authors suggest "serious" human rights violations have been committed in Xinjiang from 2017 to 2019 under China's policies to fight terrorism and extremism, which singled out Uyghurs and other Muslim communities.

China's U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, slammed the report hours before its release and said Beijing remained "firmly opposed" to the report.

In the spring, leaked documents and photos revealed the Uyghur camps are far from voluntary, despite the CCP's claims that its "re-education camps" are voluntary and work only to stamp out extremism.

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Senator Josh Hawley said that the bill was introduced as the CCP 20th National Party Congress is set to conclude at the end of the week, and expected to bestow a third term on President Xi Jinping. (REUTERS/Michael A McCoy)

The text of one 2017 speech from a high-level CCP official revealed a shoot-to-kill order for anyone attempting escape, according to a public database of the documents published by the Victims of Communist Memorial Foundation.

The hacked documents were reportedly taken from CCP databases and sent anonymously to news outlets and activists.

Fox News' Bradford Betz and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.