IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 953 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government 
of the People’s Republic of China has violated internationally recognized 
human rights and legal due process standards by carrying out executions 
after trials marred by procedural abuses and by carrying out arbitrary 
detentions targeting Uyghurs and other individuals in Xinjiang in the 
aftermath of a suppressed demonstration and ensuing mob violence on 
July 5 to 7, 2009. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 8, 2009 
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Mr. DELAHUNT, and Mr. SMITH of 
New Jersey) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the Government of the People’s Republic of China has 
violated internationally recognized human rights and 
legal due process standards by carrying out executions 
after trials marred by procedural abuses and by carrying 
out arbitrary detentions targeting Uyghurs and other 
individuals in Xinjiang in the aftermath of a suppressed 
demonstration and ensuing mob violence on July 5 to 
7, 2009. 
Whereas the July 5, 2009, outbreak of mob violence after an 
initially peaceful demonstration of Uyghurs in Urumqi, 
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•HRES 953 IH 
Xinjiang, was precipitated by years of institutionalized 
discriminatory policies by the Government of the People’s 
Republic of China against Uyghurs; 
Whereas such policies include the government-promoted mass 
migration of Han Chinese into Xinjiang, which contrib-
utes to the eradication of the Uyghur culture and iden-
tity, the Chinese Government’s manipulation of the 
threat of terrorism since the terrorist attacks of Sep-
tember 11, 2001, to justify human rights violations 
against the Muslim Uyghurs, and restrictions of religious 
and cultural expressions of Uyghurs, including attacks on 
their cultural heritage by the destruction of cultural 
items, books, and buildings; 
Whereas pursuant to a policy of the Government of the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China, government officials recruit 
young Uyghur men and women to work in factories in 
the interior of China, and some workers have reported 
the use of coercion by local officials to gain their partici-
pation under exploitative working conditions; 
Whereas Uyghurs continue to suffer the consequences of en-
vironmental degradation in Xinjiang; 
Whereas Uyghurs in Urumqi took to the streets on July 5, 
2009, to protest the government handling of a reported 
mob attack on Uyghur workers by Han workers at a 
Guangdong factory after graphic images appeared on the 
Internet depicting the attack, despite reports that the ini-
tial protest started out peacefully, a violent confrontation 
ensued as police authorities cracked down on those pro-
testers; 
Whereas some Uyghurs randomly attacked Han Chinese by-
standers and members of the Han Chinese community, 
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•HRES 953 IH 
and destroyed shops and businesses in the city of 
Urumqi, resulting in deaths; 
Whereas following those events, and despite an overwhelming 
police presence throughout the city at that time, some 
Han Chinese carried out revenge attacks in Uyghur 
neighborhoods, randomly attacking Uyghurs and destroy-
ing Uyghur property, resulting in deaths; 
Whereas in the aftermath of events on July 5, 2009, Chinese 
authorities initially reported detaining around 700 people 
in connection with the riots, and later reported hundreds 
of additional detentions; 
Whereas some people detained reportedly had no connection 
to events on July 5, 2009, and family members reported 
receiving no information on the location of people in de-
tention, and the whereabouts of many of those detainees 
are still unknown; 
Whereas on October 12, 2009, various media outlets reported 
the commencement of trials without the benefits of any 
due process, public observers, or court procedures in vio-
lation of international legal standards; 
Whereas those trials were marred by selection of judges con-
sidered ‘‘politically reliable’’ and restrictions of the de-
fendants’ rights to retain independent legal defense; 
Whereas on November 9, 2009, international media outlets 
reported the execution of 9 individuals who had been sen-
tenced to death, 8 of whom reportedly were Uyghur and 
1 Han Chinese; and 
Whereas many details about events in July 2009 and subse-
quent detentions and trials remain unknown in the face 
of ongoing official controls over the free flow of informa-
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•HRES 953 IH 
tion from Xinjiang, including an Internet shutdown and 
restricted phone access: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) strongly condemns any violence against in-
nocent individuals regardless of their ethnicity, gen-
der, or religious beliefs, and recognizes that individ-
uals who have committed crimes must be brought to 
justice in full compliance with international human 
rights and legal standards, including independent 
courts, habeas corpus and due process protections, 
the free choice of legal defense, and the right to 
challenge the accuser and any evidence in court; 
(2) recognizes that the government policies of 
suppression against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, par-
ticularly the ‘‘Strike Hard’’ campaigns, as well as 
government policies regarding other ethnic groups 
within the People’s Republic of China have created 
an atmosphere of ethnic tension in those areas; 
(3) calls on the Government of the People’s Re-
public of China to— 
(A) desist from further executions based 
on trials that violate international human rights 
and due process standards; 
(B) ensure that trials are conducted in an 
open and transparent manner in accordance 
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•HRES 953 IH 
with the international obligations of the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China; 
(C) allow international observers and the 
media to attend those trials; 
(D) provide a list of all individuals de-
tained or arrested in the aftermath of the July 
2009 events in Xinjiang to the International 
Committee of the Red Cross and the public, 
and to grant access to those individuals for 
family members and independent legal counsel; 
and 
(E) cease all government-sponsored crack-
downs against people in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
Autonomous Region, including against people 
involved in peaceful protests or religious or po-
litical expression; and 
(4) calls on the President of the United States 
to— 
(A) unequivocally state the strong opposi-
tion of the United States to these legally flawed 
trials and executions; 
(B) raise those human rights concerns 
publicly and in all meetings with Chinese offi-
cials; 
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•HRES 953 IH 
(C) restate the interest of the United 
States to open United States consulates in 
Lhasa, Tibet, and in Urumqi, Xinjiang; and 
(D) as a matter of policy, direct the 
United States Embassy in Beijing to automati-
cally request permission from the appropriate 
Chinese authorities for United States Embassy 
staff to observe trials if credible reasons exist 
that such trials may not meet internationally 
recognized human rights and legal standards. 
Æ 
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