The first legislative bill I’ve ever read was today’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. It was introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern from my past home state of Massachusetts, and Rep. Marco Rubio of Florida helped to rewrite it so it could pass through the House. This bill treats foreign economic policy with the People’s Republic of China, and I would think this would make it a highly contentious piece of legislation. But while I have no doubt there was some contention behind the scenes, all 435 representatives in my nation’s Lower House, regardless of their political party, voted in favor of it. In such a polarized time, it is surprising to me to see this kind of unanimous decision. It is now expected to pass the Senate, and President Biden’s administration has indicated his promise to sign it.
The Uyghurs are a community of 12.8 million people in northwestern China. Where the majority of the people of China are of Han descent, the Uyghurs are of Turkic descent, making them an ethnic minority. Their particular culture also has long adhered to the Muslim faith, another minority status in the complicated religious environment of communist China. These people are being displaced from their homes, with families broken up, and are being sent to “reeducation schools” and, ultimately, forced labor—that is, slavery. China offers lots of excuses to justify this behavior, most of which are pretty easy to see through.
I am reading a book, Open Veins of Latin America, outlining the social and economic destruction carried out by European-descent peoples against most of the Western Hemisphere. Every history offers a narrative, constructed by choosing which ideas to include and which to leave out; I have no reason to think this one is any different. But it presents a difficult and painful narrative, one characterized by valuing wealth more than life, by corrupt governments in league with unscrupulous businessmen against the poor and hungry, by the destruction of whole societies to create a few people’s riches. European nations—and later, America—offered lots of excuses to justify this behavior, most of which are pretty easy to see through.
I am no expert on either government or economics. I have no idea how successful the sanctions in this bill would be at stemming the abuse of marginalized communities. I can’t guess what kind of tensions it would create among world powers. But whatever the results, and whatever hidden agendas might be at work, there is in this some desire to end a great injustice. Perhaps we are so nearsighted that we can only care about injustices far from us. Yet the people suffering here are Asian and Muslim, both groups for whom the United States has a poor track record.
We have so often been guilty of conserving our own freedom at the cost of others’. And at this moment, our nation and its leaders seem to be unable to agree on anything. But in the House’s unanimous passage of this bill, my soul magnifies the Lord. For it seems that God can bring the irreconcilable together for—at least the hope of—casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly, for filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty.
May we do better always. May we truly use our power to lift up the weak.