Until recently, the United States has been at the forefront of the fight to stop China’s atrocity crimes against Uyghurs. The U.S. Congress passed landmark legislation such as the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). The government placed 144 Chinese companies on the UFLPA entity list and sanctioned 12 perpetrators with Global Magnitsky asset freezes. In 2021, both the Trump and Biden administrations formally recognized China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide and crimes against humanity.
These measures had the effect of putting China on alert that its crimes had consequences.
But it appears that China now feels it has a free pass. At two critical moments in the past three years, the United States failed Uyghurs. Both were completely avoidable.
In 2022, the Biden administration gave China an easy win when the U.N. Human Rights Council voted against holding a debate on China’s atrocity crimes in Xinjiang. The margin was slim – 19 against, 17 in favor, with 11 abstentions. The U.S., despite its diplomatic clout, failed to lobby its allies effectively. Two key governments, Ukraine and Qatar, abstained. Meanwhile, China was working tirelessly behind the scenes, directly pressuring foreign ministers to vote against the measure. Its bullying worked.
On February 27, 2025, just a few weeks into the second Trump administration, Thailand deported 40 Uyghur men to China in the middle of the night. The men were among 48 refugees who had been in Thai detention for more than 10 years after fleeing persecution in China in 2014. The U.S. had ample opportunity to prevent this but failed to act. China, on the other hand, played its hand masterfully. Just weeks earlier, it hosted Thailand’s prime minister for a state visit discussing Chinese investment.
After Thailand came under sharp criticism for consigning the Uyghurs to near-certain torture – and worse – at the hands of the Chinese government, Thai officials first claimed that no other country would take the refugees. But only days later, officials admitted that many nations, including the United States, had offered to resettle the Uyghurs. Russ Jalichandra, Thailand’s vice minister for foreign affairs, revealed that the deportation was carried out to avoid “retaliation from China that would impact the livelihoods of many Thais.”
What was the U.S. doing to counter this known pressure campaign?
Thailand is a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Why wasn’t the annual Cobra Gold military exercise – a cornerstone of U.S.-Thai relations – used as leverage to pressure Thailand? Whatever messages Washington sent privately to Thailand making its position clear, U.S. officials waited until the morning after the deportation to issue a public statement of condemnation. Words without action do nothing for the Uyghurs who have now been sent back into the hands of their oppressors right at the beginning of the new U.S. administration.
When Marco Rubio was nominated as secretary of state, Uyghurs felt a surge of optimism. In Congress, he was the main sponsor of key Uyghur-related legislation. In 2018, as chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Senator Rubio led the first-ever congressional hearing to hear witness testimony from a Uyghur survivor of the camps. Calling the atrocities against Uyghurs “evil,” he said: “In the 21st century, we must not, cannot, and should not accept the mass internment of individuals based on their religious faith, on the basis of their cultural identity.”
At his confirmation hearing in January, Rubio clearly stated that the major failure of the U.S. regarding China was that “we’ve allowed them to get away with things.” When asked, “Will you lobby for Thailand to not send these Uyghurs back to the horror they will face if they returned?” his answer was “yes.”
So we were very hopeful that once in office, he would find a way to defeat China’s campaign to bully and bribe Thai politicians with investment deals worth billions. We were wrong.
We know that the U.S. can stop deportations to China when it wants to. Several years ago, we helped a Uyghur who had been detained in Thailand to reach safe haven in the United States. In fact, the U.S. has rescued survivors of the camps and other Uyghur refugees stranded in half-a-dozen countries from Central Asia to the Middle East. If it was possible under previous administrations, why not now?
This new administration has the opportunity to fulfill its promises – to make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous – by standing up for fundamental freedoms and against authoritarian coercion. It must ensure that Uyghur Americans are not victims of transnational repression at the hands of foreign police, and that the United States and its allies are not bullied by China on the world stage.
If the U.S. does not stand against religious persecution, who will? The U.S. must not waver in the face of tyranny. If the U.S. intends to be great, it cannot allow China a free pass to bully its allies.